Off the Rails
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: Alternate powers: Check. Power levels: Fail (Over 9,000!) Protagonist: Checksum error. Okay, something's broken here.
1. Power Overwhelming

Taylor Hebert lay in her bed as her father finally left for work. Nothing mattered, even having powers. Far from fixing her issues, she still sat in a gloom as she knew of all the failures that would be coming. They called it a dissociative disorder.

Memories that were not my own.

Except she could probably check things and prove the doctors wrong. Prove that they were worthless, yet again.

Taylor shuddered as she opened her eyes.

Dang. Only fifteen minutes. Can't even get tired enough to sleep.

Did I want to prove that Emma had been attacked by the ABB and then had her frail ego warped by the cruel young hero?

No. Proving that would mean all I had was Dad. And he was working himself to death.

Another fifteen minutes.

She felt a well of powers ebb and flow as one of her main abilities tried to find a mix of six powers that could help her. Teleportation, disintegration, flight (redundant, power!), time compression/expansion, a combat precognition power (not in combat, power!) and finally a defensive field to negate any attacks.

Nothing useful to help my... damage. With a mental flick, she turned them off.

Taylor just wanted her mom and dad back.

And then reality started to _shuffle_ as another power worked to fulfill her almost unconscious desires as tears streamed down her face while she stared at the ceiling.

"Taylor? What's wrong?" Annette Rose Hebert asked.

After a long moment, Taylor looked over. "It's- It's all gone to shit Mom. Emma's become this horrible person that torments me all the time in school."

Annette leaned down to hug her daughter. "I'll always be here, you know."

"Except you died. You aren't my mother. Your some other Taylor's mom." Her brown eyes studied the shade of her mother. "It broke Dad. It broke me."

The mother frowned. "What are you talking about? I mean, it took most of a year for me to heal after the accident-"

"My power brought you here to this Earth. I'm so pathetic that I have to steal my mother from her real daughter." Taylor tucked her head down.

Annette sat and thought for a second. "But I'm here for you now and you can put me back afterwards? I'm pretty sure my other daughter Taylor would be happy that I helped you. Come here, Little Owl. Sit up."

With a lot of prodding, Taylor sat up in a slouch and let the faux-mother hug her. She started to cry a little more as she let the lie into her heart.

"So, you are a parahuman? With powers?" Annette asked a while later. "What can you do?"

The girl shrugged. "Just about anything I want. But it won't fix things like you being dead."

"If you can do anything, why couldn't you? I mean, you brought me here. Couldn't you bring your mother here, just before she died? You look a little older than my Taylor. And too thin, too." Annette ran her hand up and down Taylor's back. "Or maybe something to help heal your psyche? Like some ambrosia or nectar of the gods to cure you?"

Taylor blinked, then nodded. "I- Maybe? Can you stay and make sure it works?"

"I can stay until you have your own mother back," she promised.

Willpower started to rise ever so slightly as she thought over what she wanted. The ability to reshape, repair the mind and body. Ten glowing stars within her rose up and the merged into an incredible thing. Suddenly, she understood everything about her body, as if she could reshape everything about her for such a huge area.

Her inhumanly keen mind started to carefully pluck at memories and connections with the skill of advanced, futuristic psychology. She stopped, ten minutes later as she finally felt _almost_ stable.

"Thanks, Mom. I'm going to send you back. This will all feel like some sort of dream." She tweaked the other woman, fixing any little wrong things and removing the scar from an accident that did not quite kill her.

"Goodbye, Little Owl. Go save your mother. Help your father." Annette leaned forward and kissed her daughter on her forehead. "Be the best hero in the world, why don't you?"

"I will." That shuffling power rose up and with a stutter, returned the woman to her own time and place. "Save Mom, fix Dad. Be a _hero_. I- I can do that, I think." She stood up and tried to think of her first thing to do.

Shower? Shower.

Ten minutes later, Taylor Hebert (she had to be Taylor Hebert, she could ignore some of those other memories for now) stepped out of her shower and stood in front of the bathroom sink and mirror as she patted herself dry. She still looked like an upright frog. A little bit of a belly, no boobs and stick thin. Her Mom had even said so.

She could fix that too, but not too far, the fifteen year old girl thought to herself. The little bit of flab disappeared, moved upwards to give her almost a b-cup pair of symmetrical breasts. Muscle and a thin layer of fat filled her out a little bit as her hips widened in a more womanly manner. She only touched the little bit of her face to make it more symmetrical with slightly more full lips. Pimples and blemishes faded away.

Not pretty, but no longer _ugly_.

Then she realized she needed a costume. She went into her bedroom and found all the stained, ruined outfits in a box and started to shift molecules and atoms around. Almost white with silver accents, with the symbol of Ouroboros surrounding the symbol for infinity. A white and silver bodysuit with leather gloves and boots and a belt to break up the outfit. A face mask that covered most of her face and eyes along with the long cape finished off the outfit.

She looked like a young hero, she decided. Taylor turned and stepped out of the reality of Earth Bet.

* * *

Annette scowled as she heard her cell phone ring. She glanced over to her purse and reached for it. With a little fumbling, she pulled it out. "Danny? I'm on my way home." She listened for a second. "For the party on the 10th? Sure-"

She never saw the light change earlier than expected as her phone beeped with a text message. Nor did she see the big truck swerved around a car to stay at ten over the speed limit to punch it through the green light as it turned. So the crash as it t-boned her car seemed to come from nowhere. Glass shattered and the door broke her arm and all of her left side ribs to lacerate her lungs.

Then, between one blink and another, she found herself on a roof overlooking an accident as the four door car spun around and hit two more cars.

"Oh god. Oh god! Did I just die?" she said as she started to hyperventilate.

"No, but you would have if I hadn't interferred," the floating figure next to her said as the world ignored them.

"Who are you?" Annette asked.

"Mom, its me." Taylor pulled down her mask. "I came back in time to save you."

"Taylor? What happened?" The mother felt her heart break, because she knew well enough what created parahumans.

"After you died, I- I got bullied in school. No one would stand up and Dad and I were just broken. Still are, really. Even with powers to fix my mind. I got shoved in a locker filled with tampons and pads." Taylor shivered there and pulled her hands tight around her torso. "I guess that's when I 'triggered'." The lie came easily, all the better to ignore the source of her powers and knowledge.

"Oh, honey. That won't happen now," Annette said and she pulled the girl down into a hug.

Taylor looked away. "It kind of does have to happen, or I won't get the power to save you. But I think I can trick things. Make it look like you died like in my memories, but bring you into the future. That way I can have the power to be a hero. Maybe save Brockton Bay." Or all the Earths in existence.

Annette stared at her daughter with a deep frown. She did not like this idea at all. That did not mean it might be the only way. "So what are we going to tell everyone about why I'm alive years later?"

"Um, a parahuman rescued you from a death in the past?" Taylor shrugged. She might have to rewrite some people's memories. Reality folded-stuttered around them for a long minute and they appeared in the living room of the Hebert household.

Her mother looked around to see the slightly messy room. "Honestly, you two. You really do need me around to keep the house together, don't you?"

Taylor winced and started to fix and clean things. "Sorry."

The house even groaned as the foundation came together as the buildings went back to square again. Even the one rickety step on the porch no longer wiggled.

"So how are we going to tell Danny about this?" Annette mused to herself.

"I can call him, but he only finally went back to work after I woke up yesterday." Taylor suppressed a small shiver at that as she felt her psyche tremble under the weight of her many problems.

"Right. And what about you? There's no way I am going to send you back to that school if it caused you to trigger. I just wish I had some way to protect you," Annette muttered mostly to herself.

Taylor reached for those sparks of power again, only to feel that it would not happen soon. Did she have any other way? Biomanipulation, psychokinesis and opening her psychic pathways with her own mental powers could work.

"Mom, I think I can give you some low level powers for now. Help keep you alive. Maybe even explain your survival as a parahuman trigger thing?" she thought allowed.

The older woman studied her changeling daughter. "Yes, at least that much. You'll do that later for Dad, too?"

Diseases and weaknesses disappeared from her mother's body even as she strengthened her bones to something stronger than any normal matter. Muscles and sinews adapted to something stronger than anything in nature.

And then the spark of psyker energies filled Annette's mind as she became equally capable in the five mental arts. But no understanding of her powers yet, that would take time and effort.

"That- That was something. I feel better physically and I can _feel_ things with my mind," Annette said in wonder.

"Um, yeah. I sorta turned you into a low level brute, thinker, shaker, master and mover." Taylor grinned slightly. Kind of broken, but handy. She would have to make her proper armor for her and Dad later.

"Well, let's get some lunch and then we'll talk until your dad gets home from work," Annette said as she moved to the kitchen.

Taylor's mind reached out to her father's own mind. A very slight nudge turned his thoughts into action to leave early to check on her.

"Sure."

* * *

Danny Hebert sighed as he stopped the truck in the driveway and then turned the key to off. He hoped that Taylor felt better, but he knew in his heart that it would take far longer than a day of rest to fix his poor, wounded angel.

He frowned as he noticed that the troublesome step didn't wiggle and something looked off about the house. Like it had been washed somehow, even though snow covered everything. He should shovel the walk again.

Unlocking and opening the door, smells assaulted his nose and filled him with nostalgia. "Taylor?"

"Dad! Um, can you come to the kitchen? I want to show you a surprise."

He walked over there and saw a ghost at the kitchen table. "Annette?" he asked as he felt his knees weakened. "How? You- You died."

She stood up and hugged him tight as their lips met. "Taylor saved me with her powers. She went back in time to snatch me from death, while making it look like I died."

"How? What? No, that's-"

"She triggered in the locker, Danny. Our little girl has so much power," she explained.

Tears streamed down Taylor cheeks as she watched her parents reunite.

Danny pulled Annette over to Taylor and then hugged them both so tight. "Oh, god. Please let this be real. If it isn't I don't want to wake up."

They stood together, babbling calming nonsenses for ten long minutes.

"Sit down while I make you something to eat. What do you want?" Annette asked him.

"Just a sandwich and some soup," he said as he slid into his chair.

"Um, Dad?" Taylor fidgeted for a second. "I can give you some powers, so you can protect yourself a little bit. I already did that with Mom." She sat down across the table.

"You can just give people powers? That's... pretty amazing," Danny admitted. "Why do I need powers, though?"

"So you can't die accidentally in a car wreck or in case someone figures out who I am. I can do more _later_ , but this is enough to start with."

He reached across the table to put his hand on her own hand. "I can understand why you would want to do that. Is it going to hurt?"

"No, I can control any sensations while I do it. You'll have to practice the mental powers until you can figure out which ones work for you," she explained as she started on the same process she used on her mother. Biological brute without actually being a parahuman and channeling psyker abilities within his mind. "Like I explained to Mom, you are now a bit of a Brute, Mover, Shaker, Thinker and can be a Master. I would _not_ recommend going there if you can help it."

Danny blinked as he felt better than at any point in his life. It looked as if he put on twenty pounds of fit muscle. A quick check of his hair and he frowned.

"Dad, if I gave you your hair back, people will _know_ you have super powers. Now you can fake it a bit by wearing loose clothes.

"So, Taylor, when are you planning on going out to be a hero?" Annette asked as she sat down at a third side of the small kitchen table.

"Tonight or tomorrow night." She tried hard not to wilt back under the gaze. "I'm pretty sure I'm not in any danger to any of the local villains. Or even heroes."

"What are you powers? You sound confident," Danny said as his frown deepened.

"Um, think a powered up Triumvirate plus Dragon/Armsmaster with psychic powers and the ability to control matter and access alternate dimensions. Like _all_ the dimensions. Oh, and some biomanipulation that I used to give you Brute type abilities without being Parahumans." She looked between them and sighed. "I told you I pretty much have 'yes' for powers."

"You think you are more powerful than the Triumvirate?" Annette asked.

"I think so, but it's not exactly that easy to go test. But no one right now locally but Lung can even get close to my physical side. And he would take a while to ramp up. I'm, well, pretty ludicrous." Hmm. She should probably make it that these memories were not accessible when she wasn't around. "I'm going to make it so Thinkers can't figure it out from me telling you guys, okay?"

"Sure?" Annette asked. She sniffed and then released her breath. "I don't want you to go out alone."

"I don't want you to go out at all, but I'll agree to not going out alone," Danny agreed as he nodded his head emphatically.

"Uh, but that will really put you guys in danger." And Taylor really wanted to go out and start fixing Brockton Bay. "Wait, I have an idea! Can I take over the basement for a workshop?"

"How does that make it so you aren't going out alone?"

"I'll make you guys the best armor I can invent! What? I told you I'm like Dragon and Armsmaster, but better!"

* * *

Danny and Annette Watched her reshape the basement into a larger, two story workshop pushing down into the ground further for about an hour. Then they disappeared upstairs.

Taylor very specifically did not need to know what they were up to. Nope, not at all. Half an hour alone and she stopped remaking reality and sat down in a chair as it struck her how alone she was again. Tears started to leak down her cheeks as she fought off waves of self-loathing and shame.

Her parents deserved happiness. She was being _selfish_. She was an adult- Well, a big girl at least. She would have someone like they had each other. The thought of _Brian_ or _Lisa_ passed through her mind for a second. She snorted a bit of hysterical laughter. She hadn't even _met_ them yet. They probably wouldn't even like her-

She stopped that as she forced her biomanipulation to try to calm down her brain chemistry and head off a long bout of depression. Taylor needed to go out tonight. She could 'accidentally' maybe meet the Undersiders. She desperately needed some friends her age.

Taylor stared off into the distance. As easily as someone else could look across the room to see a person sitting in the room, she could feel the damaged psyche of one Emma Barnes. The anger and glee at putting down someone, but it merely covered that Emma was _broken_ and desperate to not be hurt anymore. And poisoned by Sophia Hess and her stupid, Parahuman driven conflict mindset. She could feel that, too. The alien impulses appearing in the twisted mind of the 'superhero' and track star.

Maybe when she went back to school she could fix them. But changing them that much would _change_ them as people. They'd no longer be who they were.

The heroine floated into the air and slowly started to turned the dirt and rock into more tools. She probably didn't even need those, as she could psychokineticly just reshape matter into what she needed. But she remembered that actual Tinkering would be safer and _better_. So she made tools that created more tools.

She reached for that well of powers that imitated Eidolon's own power and pulled up that time compression power again, ignoring the other powers for the most part. Though she would have to remember that ability to amplify parahuman powers. That could be useful when she fought Endbringers.

Taylor paused at that point. No. Not fought.

She would _destroy them_. All twenty of them if needed be. Earth Bet would be protected.


	2. First Family Outing

Danny and Annette looked at the armors in front of them.

"They look very advanced," he finally said.

"I see your mastery of understatement hasn't disappeared, dear," the mother said in a sardonic bit of wit. "That's a bit like saying water is wet."

The seven foot tall male armor in front of him loomed with more than a hint of danger in its gray, steel and deep blue color. The female suit next to is sat six inches shorter and looked slightly medieval silver with scarlet accents (and roses!)

"So, um, how does this work?" Danny asked.

Taylor floated around the armors as she made sure everything looked perfect. "They are keyed to your psychic powers, so no one but the three of us can even operate them. In a pinch, you can use each other's armor. They are really, really tough and can fly at about Mach 4. While they are strong enough to pick up a small bridge, don't try it. You'll just break the bridge. You can blast lasers, heat, cold, electricity and sonic energy from the gauntlets and its has better sensors than even Dragon's suits. Well, I'm pretty sure on that part, but I haven't double checked against her suits." She spun around in the air. "Do you have any idea on cape names for you two?"

"My armor looks a bit industrial. Inspired by me being a member of the Dockworkers?" Danny asked as he poked at the armor with his new mental powers. It hissed open to make it so that he could step into the back of it when ready.

"Well, yeah?"

"Hmm. Not Stevedore," he said to himself.

"How about Everyman? Alludes to the common man without directly pointing to a union or communism," Annette suggested as she struggled to do the same thing. "I'm thinking Resurgence."

"Both are good names. I'm thinking about using Advent or Revolutionary," Taylor said as she made sure that her father felt comfortable and the armor's A.I. adapted to let him have level one access.

"Hmm. Revolutionary might get the PRT up in arms if they think you are going to overthrow the government. They don't even like people changing the status quo, much less actual revolutions," her mother said as she opened her own armor finally. She stepped in like Danny had in his own armor and let it fold up around her. "So what level of attacks should we worry about?"

"You should be able to survive being hit by Alexandria or Leviathan. Behemoth and the Simurgh are dirty cheaters that cheat and the Siberian will likely gut you. Faultine _might_ be able to hurt you, but she has to touch you. If you have to fight Lung, hit him hard and fast before he can ramp up to meet your power level," Taylor, no Advent, said in a firm tone of voice.

"What about Purity or Hookwolf?" Resurgence asked as she tested the limits of movement, only to find that it did not limit her at all.

Advent stretched her mind and found the mother feeding her baby. "She's semi-retired, I think. And, well, Hookwolf? He'd probably be annoyed to find out he can't scratch the paint job. Like at all."

"Um, Taylor?" Everyman called out. "How are we getting out of the house?"

"Give me some credit. I made a tunnel that goes out into the bay." Advent opened a doorway that led down into a tunnel and floated out at a brisk pace.

Everyman and Resurgence followed with surprising ease. The door closed behind them and their sensors highlighted the pitch black tunnel.

'Why is it so dark?' Danny thought aloud.

'Security. I'll add something a little more intense tomorrow,' Advent replied as she splashed into the pool of water at the end of the tunnel and then streaked through the murky water of the bay.

'Oh. Telepathy. Wow,' Resurgence realized in wonder.

All three broke out of the water and then curved back towards the shore.

Taylor took several breaths as she worked herself up to this. She could do this. She _needed_ to do this. Go big. Go loud.

Make a change.

"So what's first?" Everyman asked as they floated in the air.

"Can you check to see if there is anyone in that ship right there?" his daughter asked as her well of powers started to bring up different variations of Thinker powers to check for herself.

"Only thing alive in there are some fish, crabs and other wildlife," Resurgence said as she played with the Heads Up Display.

"Good." Advent held out her hand and a transparent bubble appeared around the ship. With a crunch, it compacted into five foot squares that floated over to the nearest open area of the abandoned docks to the north. "Next one?" she asked in excitement.

"My god," he said. "You _weren't_ kidding at all about your powers, were you?"

"She really wasn't," Resurgence said as she scanned through the different ships. She pointed at the one to the south. "That one is clear."

A bubble appeared and it _crunched_ into squares again.

* * *

"Armsmaster to the Console Room. Armsmaster to the Console Room! Priority 2!" a voice yelled out over the Rig's public address system as alarms whooped loudly.

"Acknowledged." Colin Wallace then looked up from his work and carefully deactivated his tools and ran over to stand in the armoring cubicle. Quickly he verified that his undersuit was tugged into place and he called out code words to activate the waldos.

Two minutes later, Armsmaster exited his workshop/office and ran down the hallway and then up two flights of steep stairs. He answered the two PRT troops stationed outside the Console Room.

"Sitrep?" he demanded.

Dauntless looked up from the central console. "Three new parahumans just appeared in the bay and then started to, well, destroy all the ships in the bay." Three other PRT agents worked feverishly at their own consoles and talked into their headsets.

"What are they using?" Armsmaster demanded as he stepped around to an unoccupied station.

"Hell if I know. Just bubble and then pop, a whole ship is turned into cubes that float over to the docks up north," he replied as he tried to suppress a shiver. That sort of casual use of power had thrown him for a loop.

"Destructive, yes. But this is salvage. Set the anti-air defenses to manual override so they don't attempt to fire." Not that they could lock on to the armor figures with anything but cameras. The smaller figure in the white outfit seemed to be the one actually moving the ships. "Update Brockton PRT. Let Director Piggot know that they appear to be non-hostile right now." Just insanely overpowered. Some sort of telekinesis? It put anything short of Eidolon to shame.

"She is ordering us to not approach while they work," John said, the operator to the left of Dauntless called out. "Keep them under observation."

"She should finish cleaning out the Bay here in fifteen or twenty minutes," Irene called out as she typed furiously at her own screen.

"No hits in any database. I don't think I've ever seen your sensors ever come back with so little data," the final operator, Fred, called out. "It's not even sensing any energy until the ship goes pop."

"Acknowledge the orders from the director. Do you think she will try to dredge the Bay?" Armsmaster asked.

"Um, very possible, I suppose. There goes the container ship. The Bay is unblocked now," Irene called out.

Armsmaster blinked at that. While not the largest container ship out there by any means, that was no small ship.

Dauntless snickered. "Man, those ship owners are going to be furious that they can't block anyone from removing those legally."

Really? "This is technically destruction of private property."

"Yeah, like you could get a court to convict them of that after fixing the Bay. Not that it would fix any of the real issues.

Minutes crawled by as they kept watch.

"There goes the last one. There are no more ships left. I think they actually found three we didn't even know of," Fred said as the powerful cameras of the Rig continued their duties.

"Headed north. Right over the old ferry," Irene informed them.

"She bubbled it again, but it didn't pop into cubes," John said as Miss Militia and Velocity entered the room at a run.

"Um, is it me or does that ferry look brand, spanking new?" Dauntless asked.

"It's not just you," Armsmaster replied. "Also the ferry dock. There isn't even any cracks in the concrete." Pure matter manipulation.

The trio zipped over to the south ferry dock and repaired it just as easily.

"They just headed over to downtown and seem to be flying around in a curve," the female operator said as she had the comper map the path on the screen overlay of Brockton Bay.

"What are they doing?" Miss Militia asked looked at the screens. She blinked at the empty bay of water. Did they move the ships?

"Looking for something, I'd guess," Velocity said.

"Probably. The question is what," Armsmaster replied in a terse tone.

"Whatever it is, they found it," Fred said as the three figures lost altitude fast.

* * *

Stärke led his trio of enforcers down the back alleys to their next stop, the back door of an antique shop. The Empire Eighty-Eight cape swaggered with overconfidence, even though he knew he was little better than one of Kreig's lieutenants. He barely looked the part of a cape with his blood red shirt with it's stylized S logo of white and black lettering. The jacket and jeans he wore almost made him look mundane, but the red Zorro-style mask hid his identity well enough.

"So this guy tried to mouth off to us last month. Claimed he couldn't afford protection," the twenty year old cape explained. "If he resists this time, we got permission to break his left hand."

Don nodded as he came up to the back door and knocked on the door hard. He looked much more physically strong than his boss, even with the big jacket and knit hat covering his bald head. "Open up, old man."

"Leave me alone!" the owner of the shop yelled back. "I told you I can't afford your extortion. You might as well kill me." He readied his pistol with a dead heart with thoughts of dearly departed wife on his mind.

The cape walked up and kicked the door three times, smashing it open finally.

"He told you to leave him and his shop alone," a girl said from behind them.

Stärke turned around with an ugly snear, only to stop as he realized that _three_ capes floated about five feet off the ground only ten feet behind him. He shook off his surprise and laughed at them. "Are you three idiots? This is Empire turf. Tell your boss that if you intrude, we will kill all of your capes in the most painful way possible."

Advent landed softly. "We don't have a boss. We're _heroes_."

Resurgence and Everyman landed a bit more heavily with a muted set of clanks.

"You should probably surrender while you still have teeth," Everyman suggested in a tense voice as he clenched his armored fists. He hadn't even _heard_ of this guy before today.

Kaiser would kill him if he didn't try to fight. The girl would distract the armor wearing goons, Stärke decided. He took two quick steps and punched her hard in the gut. And felt some bones in his hand _break_ as his fist just stopped cold. "Cunt! Fuck! Shit!" he swore in pain. That felt harder than steel.

"Got that recorded that he started the fight?" Advent asked her mother.

"You know the armor got it, young woman," Resurgence replied in a tart tone of voice.

"Just double checking, Mom." Advent floated up and then flicked him on the forehead.

The Nazi flipped as if he'd been struck by a baseball bat. Hard.

"That's probably going to be a concussion," her father said with a wince. The suit's sensors said he'd probably live.

Resurgence pointed a fist at the three thugs. "Are you going to do this the smart way or the stupid way?"

"Run!" Don shouted as he took off down the alley in a sprint.

"Use the taser mode," Advent suggested helpfully.

Three zaps filled the alleyway, leaving the thugs twitching on the ground.

"We can keep doing this all day, you know?" Everyman explained to them helpfully.

"You- fuckers- Kaiser's gonna kill- you-" Don managed to gasp out.

Zap-zap-zap.

"Can you call the cops. Oh, and the PRT for this guy, of course," Advent asked the shopkeeper.

The old man grinned at her. "I would be delighted to do so. Nice to see some new heroes."

Ten minutes later, the three of them flew off into the air.

"Now where?" Everyman asked his daughter.

"Dockside," she said as she sent her mind out. The chances that Lung or Oni Lee would be out in their cape identities would be low. Her eyes narrowed in cold fury. "I've got our target. Two apartments above a liquor store. With five girls chained to their beds."

"They have what?" Resurgence asked in a quietly furious voice.

Everyman looked over to her. "Oh, right. You... left before it got out that Lung ran brothels that used slaves." Why hadn't the Protectorate done anything about this before?

"I'm going to castrate the bastard," Resurgence promised in a very intense voice.

They shot north across the city and slammed down in front of the little Asian alcohol store. Resurgence opened the door with a little too much force, sending the shards of glass and metal to splash against the brick wall.

"You can no go here!" the young ABB thug behind the counter shouted in a panic.

"Through the storeroom in the back?" she asked her daughter.

The boom of a shotgun sounded in the room. Jon Wong stared at the three figures as they _ignored_ him and his trusty shotgun. "Ah, fuck." He took off running through the back door of the shop and kept going out into the alley.

"Should I go get him?" Everyman asked the other two members of the family team.

"No. He might go get Lung or Oni Lee," Advent said even as she already knew he had his phone out.

They tromped up the stairs to the second level where a middle aged woman tried to stop them. Resurgence tasered her hard and then ripped the door off the first room.

"God, these poor girls," she said. "Can you help them?"

Advent nodded as she went over and pretended that she needed to touch them to start healing them. "Drugged and beaten. This one is pregnant."

One by one they started to stir as they felt healed. Everyman snapped their leg shackles with great care.

"You're going to be all right. I promise it," Advent said to the third girl as she started to cry.

"These tears of joy," the girl explained. "Can I go home?"

"We'll get you home," the silver and red armored hero promised.

'Get ready. Here comes Oni Lee,' Advent warned them mentally.

Even prepared, they almost didn't react fast enough as the teleporting assassin appeared in the room. He dropped two grenades and then tried to stab the youngest of the heroes present. The clone disintegrated into dust from Resurgence's punch to the back of his head.

Advent turned the two grenades inert with a wave of one hand and then teleported with a burst of psychic energy to the rooftop across the street and startled the villain by her arrival. She punched him just a moment to late, leaving her covered in dust. She raised her other hand and blasted at his destination teleport and burned his shoulder with a laser before the clone burst into ash again.

She streaked off into the air after him, following his flat psyche across the breadth of the north docks. Advent smiled as she felt her mother continue to rescue the slaves even as her father shot into the air after her.

Oni Lee disappeared into an abandoned looking warehouse, followed momentarily by Advent as she ignored the walls and blasted at him again and pulverized another clone.

"Who dares?" a huge Asian man said, his metal dragon mask glinting in the dim light.

"I'm Advent. That's who dares," she answered as she ignored the rest of the ABB thugs that shot at her.

Lung narrowed his eyes as he studied the girl. She showed no fear at all, just like Alexandria. "Girl, you should flee before you earn the wrath of Lung."

"You should be worried about my anger, dragon of the east," she countered as she shot beams at the thugs to send them sprawling from the kinetic force of the green beams. The girl landed hard enough to crack the concrete floor.

He felt his scales pushing out already as his power thrilled at the thought of an intense fight. "Then so be it," Lung called out as he charged forward much faster than she expected struck at her head.

Once again, a hand shattered as it struck something more inviolate than a mountain. His power surged again, granting him another six inches of growth.

"I'll kill you!" he promised, just before three hundred pounds of armored hero smashed into him at just under the speed of sound. Bones broke and splintered to cause agony as Lung went rolling away through a shelf in an explosion of boxes and metal.

"Keep your hands off my daughter, you bastard," Everyman shouted. Holy shit, he just sent Lung flying with that blow.

In the blink of an eye, Oni Lee appeared three times around them and dropped two different types of grenades. Three normal grenades went off just before the the white phosphorus ones ignited. He killed three of his own men.

And just stared at the two figures that _ignored_ his attack as they ran at Lung.

Advent did put out the fire behind her with an unneeded wave of her hand. Lung stood over eight feet tall with shining, silver scales starting to cover his body.

The armored hero blasted him with a sonic blast, which staggered him. Advent flew up in a tiny arc and then smashed down with a lot _more_ of her strength. Lung's face and neck snapped from the force that blew out all the windows of the warehouse as he pancaked on the ground.

In a daze, Lung sent out a burst of fire. Advent and Everyman ignored the wave of flames and hit him even _harder_ than before. Lung's body only twitched in response.

Up in the rafters, Oni Lee stared down at the impossible sight of his master beaten down so savagely. He teleported away in an unsteady manner due to his blown out eardrums.

"Resurgence is still freeing the girls. And they need more healing," her father called out to her.

Advent just picked up the defeated villain. "We'll take him along. Can you call the PRT hotline so they can pick him up?" She looked away from the normal human members of the ABB that lay on the ground dead, killed by their own leaders brutal attacks.

They shot out of the hole in the building that Everyman entered through. A minute later they both landed back at the brothel through a blasted out window.

"Dad, there could have been people under the window," Taylor complained.

"People in Brockton Bay aren't quite that stupid," he countered as his boots clunked down on the ratty linoleum.

Lung's comatose body hit the ground with a larger thud.

"I already called the police," Resurgence said as she finished releasing the last girl from the second room.

"Good. Huh, these two are members of the ABB here as punishment. Not that _anyone_ deserves this treatment," Advent said as she went back to healing their bodies.

"He is Lung. You do not argue with Lung if you do not have powers," one of the girls said as she eyed the unconscious and unmasked figure on the ground. "What trick did you use to defeat the Lung?"

"I hit him harder. Much harder and it would have collapsed the building." Advent gave the incredulous girl a shrug. "I'm _really_ strong. Like ludicrously strong."

"She really is," Everyman said with a chuckle.

"Here comes Dauntless and Velocity," the young teen called out.

Said hero in greco-roman armor flew up to the window. He then stared at the almost seven foot tall man on the ground. "Is that _Lung?_ "

"Yes, it is. Advent chased after Oni Lee and then defeated Lung with my help," Everyman said. "Oh. I'm Everyman. That's Resurgence and the young woman there is Advent."

"And chased Oni Lee away?" the hero asked in a stunned voice.

"I had winged him with a laser, so he decided on discretion rather than valor," the girl said as she healed another girl's injuries and drug addiction away. The fact that the girl ended up being slightly more symmetrical and pretty was just coincidence.

Velocity stopped at the doorway. "This is one of the ABB brothels? Of course it is. Well, good work, you three. If I had any doubts if you were heroes or not, this pretty much settled it."

"So, if we could get your statement?" Dauntless said as he licked his dry lips.

Resurgence laughed at the way he said that.

* * *

Half an hour later, they floated back up into the air.

"Are you going to go three for three?" Everyman asked his daughter.

"What? Get the Merchants angry with me, too?" She grinned at them. "Just a little bit. I want to send a message that I am not afraid of _any_ of the gangs. And that their days of terrorizing our home is done." Hmm. None of them were out and about. Yet, anyways. When the learned that Lung had been defeated, they would come crawling out. "Might be later tonight unless they develop some common sense and hide."

"How are we getting home without being followed?" her mother asked.

"Your armors are able to teleport back to known locations, places they've visited. So that's easy," she replied.

"Let's go home then and try to brainstorm some ways to bring me back from the dead legally." With that, Resurgence disappeared in a swirl of red and white particles.

Everyman disappeared only a moment later.

Advent chuckled and then stepped through different dimensions and walked into the secret 'base' of the house. Which was now easily about three times bigger than the house above. And filled with many tools and devices.

Annette and Danny looked at each other as they walked upstairs via the much longer stairs and then into the living room.

The father scratched his jaw absently. "So the only _really_ legal way to get you back in the records is through the PRT, I think. Which would likely out us as capes."

"No, I'd rather not do that if we can help it," his wife said with a gentle shake of her head.

"The other way is that we have a new identity created for you in a less than legal way. I know a guy or two that know the right people," Danny said as he stood up to go get his little notebook of contacts he carried as part of his work.

They both heard him start to talk to someone on the phone upstairs.

"How are we going to pay for all this?" Annette wondered aloud.

Taylor coughed as she transformed her superhero outfit to a semi-fashionable outfit. Not _particularly_ tight or skimpy, but it no longer hid her body under shapeless layers. "I, uh, can just make it. Well, whatever we need. Money, gold, gems. It's all just matter." She created a perfectly clear diamond the size of a man's fist with thousands of facets. Then she blinked and grinned. "I could totally make blood diamonds a thing of the past." Some evils appeared to be unstoppable, even in the Warlord Africa of today. She then made a small stack of $100 bills for her other hand.

"Well, that will work over the short term. Do you have any ideas over the long term?" her mother asked with wide eyes.

"I do, sorta. I just don't know that I feel that comfortable with what I would have to do to earn the bounties for the S-Class threats here in the USA. It's not like anyone asked to be screwed up by their powers and by _getting_ their powers. But I don't want to leave out there as a threat." Taylor hugged herself. She already indirectly caused some deaths.

Annette came over and gave her a hug, which her daughter obviously needed. "That isn't your job."

No, but it was her responsibility. "We need to get some cell phones while you two hone your telepathy." She felt a twisting, dark path unless she said, "And don't tell anyone about the pure telepathy and mind control parts of the powers I gave you. Too many people will think that we are threats like the Simurgh." Like poor Canary. Paige.

Taylors eyes widened as she sent her mind out. In moments she knew that the Cauldron cape had her next performance in New York City on Saturday night. Something else to preempt.

"You don't have a cellphone? Danny and I talked about getting you one when you started high school."

"Mom, dad blamed calling you on the phone for your death," Taylor said in a soft voice. Hmm, her overpowered ability to tinker in super power armor would probably still let her cobble together a basic communication device.

Annette looked horribly stricken. "Oh, god. And it was all my fault. I shouldn't have answered. I'm such a stupid girl."

Taylor now hugged her mom tightly. "It was just a mistake. And you won't make it again. Not that a regular car accident could really hurt you. I made sure of that."

"What's going on?" Danny asked as he walked into the living room from the stairs.

"Talking about cellphones and Mom felt horrible about what she caused to us. But we probably need some cellphone when we are out in public," Taylor explained as she released her mother from her tight hug.

"And the reason for the large crystal and stack of money?"

"Um, showing how I can make diamonds and cash with my power?" she replied in a smaller voice.

"A diamond. Well, I don't think I know anyone that I could fence that with," he said with a chuckle that got the two females to laugh with him. "A new identity will cost about five thousand dollars."

Taylor made two more stacks of $100 bills. "Nonsequential, too."

"He'll have it ready tomorrow under Rose Sullivan. Just have to get a good picture printed," he continued to explain.

"Taylor, I'm going to need a disguise and I think you can just change me so I don't look _exactly_ like I did."

"Sure, Mom." She created a full length mirror in a stand.

"Well, how about two inches taller and a little more of a figure? Then straight, black shoulder length hair. Hmm. Blue eyes, darling?"

"How about a little more yellow, so they are still a shade of brown?"

"Good idea."

* * *

Lisa Wilburn bundled her coat tighter as it started to snow. The temperatures dropped pretty quick after the sun set behind the mountains.

"Hello?" a girl's voice called out.

Green eyes turned to study the thin, younger girl with curly, black hair that reached her butt. "Yes?"

"I was looking to help someone. I heard they ended up working for a really bad man that could stand to eat a few heavy meals." Taylor let it out there, because she _did_ want to help the girl get out from under Coil's thumb.

"I doubt you could help me at all." Power, why weren't you telling me anything?

"How about I prove I could help you? With one simple little fact?" Taylor said with a small grin on her face.

"Sure. Right." Shit. Some sort of Stranger ability that trumped her own Thinker power?

Stranger and power dampening, Taylor thought to herself as she kept ahold of two of her wellspring of powers. "He can only keep one of two choices, but he remembers everything from both of them."

Green eyes widened dramatically. Holy shit, it fit. "T-That makes a bit of sense. Why do you want to help me?"

Her smile turned a bit pained. "Maybe you are a good enough person to try and help a hopeless girl when no one else would. And don't like being forced to work for him."

"I'm not a nice person."

"And I didn't say that, did I? I said you were a good person. Though you can be nice to your friends most of the time," Taylor explained patiently.

Lisa hemmed and hawed in indecision. "And you want me to work for you?"

"Well, I would hope it's more with me. I've got big things to do. A town to clean up and a girl to save from a cruel fate. I could use a fourth set of eyes to keep me focused on the important things." She looked away. "Without losing myself. I-I'm trying to reinvent myself, you see. Not be who and what I was." She looked back and then blinked as she remembered something. "Oh, I'm Taylor."

"Laura," Lisa lied with aplomb. She scowled as the girl smiled a little.

"Well, I'm going to get a blueberry muffin and some tea at the corner store. So, I'll see you soon?" she asked.

"Sure. How should I contact you?" she asked as they both walked to the corner store.

"My PHO handle is Little_Owl."

After that, they just walked to the store and grabbed their snacks and drinks of choice. Lisa exited the store first but made sure to loiter along to see which direction she wandered off to.

Except she never came out.

A scowl marred her pretty face as she walked back to the hideout, coming in through the alley entrance that hid a break in the fence. No one looked like they they followed her, but Lisa did not take any chances. She entered the warehouse and then climbed the spiraling staircase. Getting the couch up here the first time had been a total annoyance. The second time without Brian's help had been worse.

"Back already? Thought you were going shopping?" Alec asked from the new couch.

"It's getting colder than I wanted to walk around in," she replied in a half truth. "Any more news on what happened to Lung?" More information would let her power work better. Powerful, new heroes would disrupt things for a while until the new status quo stabilized.

"Eh, I got some names and the fact that Oni Lee killed some of his own people trying to hurt them. What sort of name is Everyman? Resurgence actually sounds cool and Advent isn't bad." Alec shrugged as he continued to kill zombies in his game.

"Everyman? Must be the guy in steel and dark blue. What descriptions did they give for the other two?"

"Oh, the news got their fast enough so they got some sweet pictures of them all. Resurgence has that fancy silver and red armor, while Advent looks like she might be our age and is only wearing a normal outfit. With a cape. Looks like a dork."

"Brian still at his day job?" Lisa asked as she waited for her computer to finish booting up.

"Yup. Rachel will be here at ten o'clock?"

"I hope. We still need to scope out that target downtown. The boss wants us to rob that jail bond place," she explained as she went over the real reason they were ordered to hit it. Good odds had it as an Empire Eighty-Eight front.

The sound of an explosion sounded off in the distance.

"Cape fight. Turn on the news," Lisa called out as she opened several tabs. PHO, local news and local radio. Her police radio app came popped up almost instantly.

 _"-reports of cape activity near the docks on Anderson Road. Mush and an unknown power armor user are fighting the new heroes Everyman, Resurgence and Advent. Be advised to stand clear and perform crowd control. PRT and Protectorate assets enroute. Repeat, reports of cape activity near-"_

Only four blocks away? Lisa headed down the stairs at a trot even as she pulled on her nice coat. "Going to get some eyes on the new heroes to see how much of a problem they are going to be. I'll be back."

"Want me to come?"

"Sure. But I'm not waiting for you."

Outside she ran down the block to the main road through the area that crossed over Anderson Road just blocks away.

"I'm going to crush you like a bug," Mush shouted as he threw yet another trash can at the girl.

Advent sighed as she sent it right back to where it came from with a pulse of her psychokinesis.

Trainwreck slammed his oversized fists down on the slightly smaller man in power armor.

Inside the Everyman armor, Danny fiddled with the sensors. "Ah, I don't have to worry about hurting him if I break the limbs."

Resurgence hit Trainwreck with a concussion blast that staggered him. "Really?"

"Yeah, I think he's one of those Case-69's or something," he replied and then ripped off the nearest limb faster than Trainwreck's eyes or sensors could track.

"What the hell? I thought you were a new Tinker! That armor's way better than mine or Armsmaster's!" Trainwreck complained loudly. Why did everyone else get to work with good materials? If he had good stuff, his armor would be awesome!

A purple-white laser sheared off his legs at the knees.

"That does make this a lot easier. I'll have to play with the HUD more to see if I can do that, too," Resurgence said as she lowered her arms and floated into the air.

"Can you surrender already so that I don't have to actually hurt you?" Everyman said.

Trainwreck fired a cheap, high caliber round from his remaining arm. The bullet hit and then dropped to the ground. "What the hell, man? Do your suits even bother with following physics?"

Advent sighed and appeared in front Mush in a blink of high speed movement. "I really didn't want to have to clean this suit. But oh well." She punched him center mass and skidded him down a block away from the police cordone. She zipped into the air and then started to pelt him with kinetic blasts to strip his garbage armor from his body.

"Bitch! Fucking hurts, you little cunt!" Mush shouted as he tried to stand up.

Lisa watched from about three hundred feet away. _Advent not in any danger. Holding back to not seriously hurt Mush. Is sending a message to the gangs that she could defeat any one of their capes._

Not afraid of Mush in the slightest and is taking him apart like a cheap watch.

 _Is the girl that talked to you earlier_.

The villain blinked and looked again. Same body type and similar hair. So why did she want to talk to a villain like herself?

 _Traumatized. Self treating depression and broken psyche. Near suicidal for multiple reasons_.

Crap. That's why. Somehow she knew that Lisa would not ignore her and let her finish self destructing.

 _More powerful than any Parahuman in the world._

What the hell, power?

PRT trucks rounded the corner as several of the Protectorate heroes showed up. Lisa desperately wanted to listen in to that conversation, but decided it was time to head back to the Undersider's hideout.

"Huh, pretty powerful. We going to try and recruit her?" Alec asked as they started to head back.

"She's more likely to recruit us," Lisa replied with a snort of laughter. "Oh, and whatever you do, do not pick a fight with her. You will lose."

"Duh, of course I know that. That's what the team is for," he replied with a roll of his eyes.

"No, even with the team. She could blast us all in a moment. It's going to be hard to be a villain in Brockton Bay soon."

"So she's a blaster like Purity or Photon Mommie. Big deal."

"No, she's more like Legend twice over. Anything he could do, she probably can do. Except better."

"You are telling me she's stronger than a member of the _Triumvirate?_ " Alec said with a little worry.

"No, more powerful than all of the Triumvirate."

"Well, that's crappy. Can I go surrender now?"

"Not until I've done some serious thinking."

* * *

Armsmaster walked over to where the two armored heroes stood near the demolished remains of the trainyard tinker. "Did you have to demolish his armor quite so thoroughly?" he asked in a deadpan tone to hide his amusement.

Everyman turned to him. "Sort of? He wouldn't give up. Luckily, he doesn't have normal limbs so we could just break his armor's arms and legs off without hurting him too bad."

"Really, Everyman kept asking him to surrender and he'd keep attacking," the female said. "Armsmaster, nice to meet you."

The Tinker nodded his head as his power tried to draw inspiration from their armors. Incredibly advanced and with no wasted space or resources. He suddenly felt like he was wearing the Model-T of power armors. And Armsmaster _knew_ how advanced his suits were.

"Your armors must have taken months or work and preparation," Armsmaster said in a toned down level of admiration.

Everyman and Resurgence shared a look.

"Um, no. A lot less time than that, actually. But we are just using them to protect us," Resurgence explained in a cagey way.

Advent floated over with the bruised body of Mush. "Here you go, Armsmaster. It took a while to remove all of his trash armor."

Armsmaster turned to the two PRT troopers with him. "Get them both contained and ready to take back to PRT HQ."

Miss Militia walked up. "Always nice to meet new heroes. You guys are definitely making a big debut. All three major gangs in one day."

The younger girl stood up taller. "It's a statement that I don't intend to allow the gangs to have their way any more. Brockton Bay is going to be for its people. And not under the heel of its criminals."

"She's very gung ho about all of this," Everyman admitted. His whole posture emoted sheepishness.

"So are you a family or just three people that triggered at the same time?" Assault asked as he walked up. "Because you guys have romcom written all over you. Really!"

"Ignore him," the glowing-circuit adorned Battery said in a long suffering tone of voice.

Advent sighed. "Yes, we are a family. Mom, Dad and me."

"So, little puppy, what's your power?" Assault asked the kind girl that actually answered his simple and straightforward question!

She tilted her head a second. "I think I'll go with 'a lot'. I mean, I have a lot of powers. I can fly, I'm super strong and tough and I can Tinker. So, yeah."

"And that totally BS matter manipulation you did on all those ships. The mayor is thrilled, by the way. Once he calmed down," Assault noted cheerfully.

"Assault, I think that is enough for now. Go check with Triumph to make sure that the police cordon is maintained," Armsmaster said. He frowned as he thought over matters while Battery and Assault walked away. "Well, at least you three have each other to protect your backs. Brockton Bay always needs more heroes."

"Armsmaster?" Miss Militia asked, curious as to why he did not pitch joining the Protectorate and Wards.

"So are you willing to become an affiliated team like New Wave? There's some paperwork and contact information we'll need, but the Protectorate is always happy to support a good hero team. You have obviously put quite a deal of thought and effort into all of this."

The second in command of the local Protectorate cottoned onto his line of thought. She pursed her lips hidden behind her patriotic scarf. Yes, they probably did have a plan and if they weren't asking to join, they weren't planning on doing so.

Advent turned to her parents. "Maybe we should look into it." But not very likely. She knew of its corruption and desire to maintain the status quo, no matter what.

"So you want us to come by the Protectorate's base out in the bay?" Everyman asked.

"Go to the Protectorate Pier off of Wilma St some time tomorrow," Armsmaster explained.

"Are we free to depart now?" Resurgence asked.

"Of course."


	3. Aftershocks

The next morning, Taylor woke up early and stared at her ceiling again. The sound of two heartbeats should fill her with joy, but the ugly stab of jealousy marred that light emotion.

Still alone with only her parents that cared for her at all. Heck, Armsmaster was probably only nice and polite because of how powerful she was.

No, that wasn't fair. She rolled onto her side and curled up with her hands around her knees.

Armsmaster wasn't a villain, even in _those_ memories. Just enamored with his own sense of self as a hero and feeling threatened by Dauntless looking to eclipse him. Even though Dauntless died later.

A shiver ran up her back.

She had to stop that from happening. The destruction of Brockton Bay. Leviathan. The Slaughterhouse 9. The Teeth.

 _ **Zion.**_

Making sure that Jack Slash does not leave Brockton Bay was important. Wait, he may never come to Brockton Bay. Make sure he's stopped _soon_ before he can trigger Zion to start destroying all the Earths.

Her strength should continue to grow. After she cleaned up Brockton Bay, she could work on Boston and New York City.

And hope desperately to grow powerful enough to actually be able to survive Zion. The hero/warrior. The _Entity_. Source of parahuman powers.

She also could not hyperventilate any more, she realized as she continued to breath in and out frantically. A slap to her face startled her, but did not even sting. She would have to slap _much_ harder to do that.

And probably level the house.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Roll out of bed and stand up.

Better. She decided on a shower. Maybe go jogging. _Regular_ jogging.

After she cleaned up, she tweaked her appearance ever so slightly and then promised to herself to not do anything more for at least a couple of weeks. She pulled out sweat pants, running shoes and a hoodie and floated down the stairs. The door locked behind her with a click and she jogged down the steps and headed into the dark of the morning.

As she jogged, she stretched her mind out to feel for certain people.

Another girl jogged to ignore her tiredness for staying up late patrolling.

Her friend slept with the echoes of the threat of horrible mutilation under her dreams. _Her_ father finished making himself breakfast and planned to go to work in about twenty minutes.

Her feet turned a familiar corner as she continued down a nostalgic, painful road. Fifteen minutes later, she turned another corner to enter a cul de sac with a large, two story home that looked only thirty years old. The garage door started to rattle upwards with the whine of an electric motor.

"Mr. Barnes?" she called out.

Old habits started to cause him to smile and only long practice controlled his face. "Taylor."

"Y-You heard what happened, didn't you? On Monday morning?" she asked.

"I heard that you accused my daughter of a ludicrous bullying campaign. That she supposedly is part of a group that attacked you near daily, yet for some reason no teacher has any records of," he said in a hostile tone.

"It's Winslow. I'm one girl from a poor family. They are a model, a track star and a harmless, cute student. Even if they see them do something, they ignore it." Taylor shook her head. "But I'm not here about that. I'm here because of Emma."

"We were talking about Emma, were we not?" the lawyer asked in a scathing tone.

"I- I would like my friend back, but I think she's gone. She hates me for some reason. I just don't understand what would make Emma change from a girl that wanted to be like Lady Photon to someone that... well, frankly... someone that _enjoys_ putting other people down. Tearing everything about them to shreds. My- My- My best friend wanted to be a hero." Dammit, wrong time for tears. "It's not just me, but she does it to other people, too. When did she become so... evil?"

"She isn't evil," he snapped.

"But she's not good. Ever since she made friends with Sophia, she changed. All she cares about is how mean you can be, how much money you have and that you are pretty and popular."

"Taylor, you should leave. Now," Alan said as he turned back to his car and got in the driver's seat.

The girl moved out of the way as she felt his mind calcify around protecting his daughter from the world. Even if it left her broken. So she nudged that idea just a little bit. Amplified the suspicion that Emma is broken. She watched him drive away and sighed.

Probably not enough by half. She got him thinking more about it with talking than the overwhelming mental power she now possesed. Which should be good. She didn't want to just mind control everyone. Taylor shuddered at that thought.

She continued on with her run.

* * *

Annette looked away from the stove where she cooked breakfast. "Taylor! When did you get up? It's barely light out."

"I couldn't sleep. I don't think I _need_ to sleep, really. So I went jogging." She coughed lightly. "Um, when did you guys want to go find out what it takes to be an official, independent team?"

"Your father wants to get my fake ID settled and then we can go over to the Protectorate."

Danny walked in, all dressed to go and sat down. "Good morning. Bill is going to meet me at nine o'clock to introduce me to this forger he knows. Should only take a few hours."

Annette turned on the news as they served themselves. "Well, look who's popular," she said with a grin.

The TV news had reporters talking about their impact.

"Not surprising that we made quite the impression yesterday. We cleaned up the bay and captured criminals from all three of the major gangs," Danny said as he nodded his head, a small grin on his face.

"So I have until noon and then we'll go to the Protectorate?" She needed to think bigger. Better.

"Sounds like a plan," Danny said and then took a bite of his eggs.

Annette frowned at her daughter sitting so quietly. What happened to her chatterbox daughter? "So what's the last book you read?"

"Oh, just a fantasy novel. I've still got the second book of the series to read from the library. I'll read it before I go working on computers. Need to hear about the threats and stuff." She gave her mom a wan smile. "Sorry, had a slightly tough night. Still getting over the locker."

Her frown turned thunderous. "I can't believe they let this get so far. Agh. I wish I could go down there and have _words_ with that principal of yours."

"Honey," Danny said as he put his hand over hers. "We have to protect you."

"I know. Secret identity. Don't out the family." She started to stab her eggs.

Taylor felt amused by her mother's intensity, something that had faded slightly in her memory. "I could study for a day or two and take my GED, so I don't have to go." She blinked as a thought occurred to her. "And speaking of that. I can do something to make you guys much harder to hurt. I want you to be safe, even if the gangs and PRT come after us."

"Your powers are quite frankly terrifying," Annette said. "What are you going to do?

"I'm going to copy my mostly physically protective power." She grimaced for a second. "I don't think it will be quite as powerful, but most things this side of the Endbringers and the Siberian shouldn't be able to hurt you."

Her parents stared at her with wide eyes.

"That's- How can you do that?" Danny asked louder than intended as he caused her to flinch.

"It's- I don't know a good way to explain it. But yeah, I'm really overpowered." Ludicrously so. She reached over and then with a surge of her will, copied her Alexandria powerset to her mom, then her dad. "There you go. Should have some memory and other mental improvements."

Danny bent his spoon, then bent it back. "Well, I can definitely say it isn't going to be boring."

After breakfast, they took a few more pictures of Annette and then Danny took off in the old truck. Taylor wandered upstairs and read a book in ten minutes, then wandered down through the every armored _and_ locked door of the basement.

Her mother followed her down and then floated into another hole in the center of the old shop. She watched her daughter blur around assembling devices that she then turned around and used them to make another device.

Taylor snapped to a halt. "Come on over, Mom!"

"I thought you said you were going to work on computers," Annette said in bemusement as she floated over.

"I am. But it's going to take a lot of tools to make the computers I need. Luckily, one of my powers has the effect of making me unable to become bored." Well, maybe the phrase should be 'not too bored'.

"So a computer. That runs on Tinker science."

"Um, yeah. It'll be the ultimate mainframe. The terminals will be little bracelets keyed to your psychic imprint again. I'll make spares like I made spare parts and supplies for your armors. Though they are slightly redundant, aren't they?"

"They are a very good disguise. And our new powers are a very good hidden ace. So to speak, of course. I'll leave you to it, okay?" she said as she started to float away.

"Sure. I should be done in real time in about an hour." Taylor dialed up the time acceleration bubble up to full speed and got back to work. Those hundreds of hours of construction and programming weren't going to do themselves.

* * *

The old truck scritched to a halt and caused Danny to wince at the sound of rubber abrading. The truck ran fine and quiet. Better than ever. Taylor must have done a below the surface upgrade yesterday. He hopped out of the truck. Still felt twenty years younger and ready to take on the world.

"I'm home," Danny said for the first time in three years.

"In the study reading up on current history and the news," Annette called from the small room on the ground floor that had been her sacrosanct sanctum of learning. The _very_ old PC computer had been five years old before Annette's death. "I hope Taylor is done with that new computer. I don't remember it running that slowly."

"Yeah, I wasn't as tech savvy to keep it updated and running right," Danny admitted.

She snorted at him. "If you bought Bob Morgan over in IT lunch at the Artemis Burger near the college, he would work his magic. Usually."

"Oh, that was your secret."

"And I can't exactly do that anymore." Annette shrugged and headed into the, yet again, expanded subterranean Tinker factory.

It spread out, now the size of a decent sized aircraft hanger.

"This isn't going to cause problems with the neighbor's houses, is it?" the father asked.

"No, I've got it braced with supports. The houses are _less_ likely to move," Taylor said with a snort of laughter that did not really reach her eyes. "You guys are ready?"

"I want to see this new computer of yours first." Annette looked around to see if she could spot it.

"Um, well I can show you the terminals. I hooked up the coms, armors and phones to it, too. The actual computer is a hyperdimensional mathematical artifact made of force fields with more computing power than the entire Earth. Even with Dragon's computers. And no, it's not going to go all Terminator on us." She tossed them each a bracelet that shrank to size over their wrist of choice. Taylor then opened a window in the air. "Hard light holograms. It has a smartphone mode if you want to look up something unobtrusive. Should now be keyed to your psychic minds and can scan for Master effects. Just think at the wrist with what you want to do."

They both brought up screens and pulled up news from the internet.

"This seems overkill for, well, _any_ computing needs."

"I've got it set up and tapped into most major public threat warning systems across the globe. It should keep an eye out for those A-Class and S-Class threats and let us know so that we can decide what to do." And took Saint's toys away. With a flash of white light, she garbed herself in her Advent outfit.

"I think she wants to go visit the Protectorate, dear," Annette said as she studied her Changling daughter.

"Yeah, I think so." Danny gave her a shrug.

* * *

The PRT trooper manning the Protectorate's official dock saw the trio fly into view and then landed with perfect aplomb in front of the blocky guardhouse.

"Everyman, Resurgence and Advent; right?" he called out.

"That is us," the blockier and male armor replied. "We're here to find out what it takes to become an Independent team."

Annette smiled to herself. From ex-minion to a powerful superhero. "I'm surprised that we are being asked to come to the Rig."

"Well, you did a lot, earn the trust and, well, Armsmaster stated that if you wanted to destroy the Rig, you could do it. So you don't need to sneak in, of course." The leader of the squad shrugged.

"And it doesn't look bad that we are meeting them, either." Advent nodded her head at the unobtrusive reporters about half a block away.

"Public relations stuff is _way_ above my pay grade. But I won't say you are wrong," he replied.

One short boat ride and they let themselves be scanned at the dock at the bottom of one of the pylons. Which led to the first problem.

"Um, I have no idea what to do. Regs say that they have to be scanned for explosives, but according to the sensors those armors aren't there except in visual light." The new PRT trooper manning the security station managed to look fit to be tied without even being able to see her face.

Advent coughed. "We don't need to actually _sneak_ an explosive, you know."

"Let me double check."

Five minutes later, they took a metal mesh cage elevator up and into the bottom of the Rig. Four figures met them, all wearing their superhero outfits.

The silver and blue armored Armsmaster gave a small wave. "Hello and good to see you again. I'm quite glad you could make it. For ease of records, have you decide on a team name?"

"Er, not really? Um, how about Hope?" Advent said, feeling quite stupid. Super-brain and still can't think more than one or two steps ahead. Agh!

"I think there's at least two teams named Hope right now. One in the southwest and one in Dallas," Miss Militia mused.

"How about Votum ad Vita? The promise of hope in Latin?" Resurgence suggested.

"Slightly religious sounding, but I guess it could work. What do you think Dad?" Advent asked of her father.

"If it causes problems, we'll look at changing it. The Brockton Bay Brigade did rebrand into New Wave."

"Votum ad Vita. Noted. So let's get to the less glamorous part of being a hero," Armsmaster said as he turned and just walked off.

They all fell in step behind him.

"Paperwork." Everyman sighed. The bane of his life.

"Paperwork," Velocity confirmed and with a grin.

The next hour passed quickly as they affirmed their heroic intentions and gave them contact information.

"So," Armsmaster said as he tried to casually bring up a topic, "you have a Tinker on your team?"

Everyman blinked, not that he could be seen. "Um, that's Advent."

The older Tinker tried not to show any dismay. "Really? I was very surprised at how advanced your armors are."

"I cheated," she admitted. "I used my matter manipulation to create my materials and tools. If you like, I could help you with some of your supplies a bit."

"Well, I won't say no, but it will have to be to the Protectorate and the Wards both, not just myself. Otherwise it might be construed as a bribe." He gave a little shrug.

"I guess," Advent said as she tried to not fidget.

"And that leaves me to give the nickel tour here," Miss Militia said with a bit of humor in her voice. She raised an eyebrow at Armsmaster, who nodded back.

"Do you have a large, empty store room?" Advent asked as she stood up.

"Yes, this way." Armsmaster led her out of the room and to the large store room by his labs.

"If you don't mind, can we hold up?" Miss Militia asked as Velocity and Dauntless followed behind the pair of Tinkers. She continued after they stopped. "I noticed that Advent signed up for S-Class threats at the highest availability."

"And you were wondering if we were going to sign off on that?" Resurgence asked. "I want to say no, but I'm afraid she'll just go anyways. Even to Endbringer fights."

Miss Militia showed a bit of her surprise with raised eyebrows, even if the scarf covered her open mouth. "Won't she listen to you?"

Everyman chuckled. "She's a teen with more power than I could imagine. Even if we said no, we don't have a way to actually stop her. So all we can do is try to be there for her. If that means going to Endbringer fights, then we will be there."

"Do you even have powers? Or are you only normal people in those armors?" Miss Militia asked.

"That's a little rude, but no. We had powers before we used the armors. The armors are just to keep us more safe."

"I see," she replied in a natural tone.

Resurgence sighed as she felt the skepticism from the hero. "For instance, I can feel your skepticism. And alarm and now- Anger..."

Miss Militia pointed her gun at Resurgence who held up her hands. "Stop." The bore on the gun looked wider than any either of the parents had seen before.

"Stopped. I'm sorry if my Thinker ability upset you. I'm still learning about how it all works," she replied with as much sincerity as she could.

"Miss Militia, would you please point your gun away from my wife. You didn't threaten Gallant the first time he brought up up his empathy power, did you?" Everyman kept his hands pointed away from anyone.

"No." The gun shapeshifted back to a more standard 9mm pistol that she holstered. "Sorry about that. Some empathy controlling masters also have the ability to sense emotions. Gallant, for instance, can blast people with kinetic force and emotions." Miss Militia scowled under her mask. "I actually have to submit us both for Master/Stranger quarantine now."

Resurgence tilted her head, then nodded. "This is going to be boring, isn't it?"

"And we are going to have to ask you to exit your armor."

"Um, is it bad that I don't have a mask under the armor?"

"We have spares. In fact, each room is supposed to have a dispenser for disposable masks." Miss Militia walked over carefully and pulled out a mask from a little box on the wall, almost like a tissue paper dispenser.

"Our government money in action," Everyman said with a snort of laughter.

* * *

Advent sighed as she let her parents know telepathically that she overheard them accidentally revealing Resurgence's empathetic power.

"I don't have much in the room right now, but this is where I store supplies that I plan to use in projects," Armsmaster explained. "Thanks for the escort. We'll have that meeting at three o'clock to go over our responses to the change yesterday to the city's dynamics."

Dauntless nodded and gave a little wave as Velocity just disappeared in a slow blur.

Fast. Hah hah.

The fifteen by fifteen foot room had a small set of crates in the corner nearest the heavy metal door they entered through.

"What materials should I prioritize?" Advent asked as she looked around.

"I'll take ten pounds of high-capacity high-temperature superconductor," Armsmaster said to test the girl.

She pushed her inhumanly intelligent mind to perfectly recall one of the materials she used in the armor for her parents. Air 'popped' to fill in the matter she used to make the ten pounds of superconductor.

"Here we go. Just extrude it carefully. Should be superconductive up to 1,000॰ celcius. It degrades rather energetically above that. Needs to be kept relatively cool while spooling it into wire."

"Why didn't you make it into a spool already?" he asked.

"Oh, so you could decide what to make it into. Works without any issues up to about 9 nm. So it can be used in computers. It's really exotic matter and requires playing with metastable quark structures. Even with my new brain, it hurts to explain it."

"Matter and energy control down to the _quark_ level?" Armsmaster asked to make sure he heard that right.

"Yes, but I wouldn't have even known how to try without my Tinkering ability. It can be created in laboratories and even small scale production, but it's a bear to figure out. About twenty generations of tools to build from phase shifted cyclotrons. So, um, my power is cheating power that cheats?" She gave him a helpless shrug.

"Yes. Yes it is. Let's work on some more standard materials. You need matter to transmute, obviously. Could you use water from the tertiary fire suppressant? It's just sea water, so effectively just the cost of pumping it up here."

"Sure!"

Half an hour later, Armsmaster closed the door to the storage room. He tapped the side of his helmet. "Armsmaster to console, send Sgt. Milo's squad for a security detail for storeroom 1B. Standard evidence situation." He then turned to her. "Well, that will be very useful. You have my personal thanks and the Protectorate's thanks. This will help the whole Protectorate."

 _"Advent, help me!"_

She turned to look to the city. "I need to go." With a zap of psychic energy, she teleported to back over the city. Advent sent her mind out to touch the people she felt were important.

There. She clenched her hands hard enough that the leather in her gloves split on their seams.

The ground quaked as she plowed through the earth as if it were merely water. She burst into the hallway in front of Coil's armored office. In a blur, she ripped of the armored door and had Coil held against the wall. Pitter bounced off the wall painfully from the light push as his glasses shattered. Tattletale's chair, in which she sat tied up, fell over backwards to her squawk of dismay.

"Coil."

He struggled to move the hand that did not quite choke him. "You wouldn't dare to kill me," he bluffed. _Why wasn't his power working?_

"It's based on precognition," she explained.

 _What did she mean?_ "I control fate." _How had she found them?_

"When you make your choice, your power traces your two paths into the future and then sends you down to the one you would either choose to keep or the other one is eliminated via your death. Oh, and I heard Tattletale call out for help."

He just stared at her. "What are you going to do?" he demanded. "I have money and power!"

"Well, I just finished verifying how vile you are. So it's time to go to jail for your crimes," Advent said as she grabbed the top of his shoulder with her other hand and then lifted him up without hurting him while she kept him docile with her biokinesis and then released the hold around his neck. "Are you okay, Tattletale?" A touch of her powers snapped the ropes that kept the girl tied up.

"Felt better," she said in complaint as she slowly scrambled to her feet while not using her right hand. "I will really feel better after he gets arrested. I'd _prefer_ being healed right away."

Advent winced as she felt Tattletale's pain. "I didn't heal you so that we have physical evidence of Coil torturing you. I dulled the pain a bit, but we should wrap your hands up so we can go to the PRT now. Can you wait long enough to testify?" Advent made sure her anti-thinker power continued to work for now against Tattletale. "And no, I do not plan to let them arrest you if I can swing it."

Tattletale thought over the question. "If it doesn't take too long." She frowned and then rolled her eyes. "Aha! You know that Coil recruited me at gunpoint. The PRT probably won't care about that." Didn't even require using her power.

"Well, you know, I'm going to have to work on reforming you as much as possible. I will need someone to help with my bounty of Coil's money and assets," Advent replied in an almost convincing tease. She started to carefully wrap the fingertips of the injured hand using her telekinesis.

"So now what?" Tattletale asked as she looked around. Where were the soldiers?"

Advent looked up. "Just finished waiting for the last mercenary to fall unconscious."

With a stutter-psychic flash, they (being everyone in that base) appeared on the grass out the PRT headquarters.

"Couldn't you have done that yesterday?" the blonde asked in frustration aggravated by her injuries.

"I'm not omniscient nor omnipotent," Advent said absently. And even with 'super' intelligence, no real idea on how to fix a whole world screwed over by monkey-paw powers. Her supercomputer reported that it completed the task of transferring all of Coil's electronically hidden wealth, with the 25 % set aside to hand over to the PRT. "Oh, hello! I've got a villain and his henchmen to hand over!"

The four PRT troopers slowed down to a cautious walk. "Coil?" the female in front asked.

"That is correct. I caught him in the act of torturing his enslaved minion here," Advent replied happily as she let the back of her mind heal the different troops and workers in the PRT base in a slow manner

Tattletale held up her hand. "That would be me. Coil had his men grab me off the street and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Work for him or be shot."

"Why didn't you slip away and come to us?" a second trooper asked as the other two started to issue requests for backup over their radios.

A _lot_ of backup.

"Can I get my injuries documented and get healed, please? Even with the pain dulled, it still fucking hurts, you know," the blonde villain said after half a minute.

"Let me take a look," the first trooper asked as she moved over with care. She unwrapped the simple bandages. "Shit, burnt fingertips, pulled finger nails and they even broke them?"

"He broke them first," Tattletale said as she looked away.

They secured pictures and recorded statements even as a good two dozen PRT troops arrived. Half an hour later, the Protectorate and the Wards all showed up.

Clockblocker complained first. "I'm feeling redundant."

Battery sighed. "Clockblocker, you aren't _supposed_ to go out and fight supervillains every week."

Vista raised an eyebrow at that, then turned back to watch the new hero. "Is she going to join the Wards?"

Aegis just shook his head. "I doubt it. She's got a team already. If she can take care of the rest of the Merchants and _all_ of the Empire, we'll be able to do boring patrols to our heart's content."

Triumph, the lion themed hero and leader of the Wards, looked over to his second in command. "I somehow don't think it will be that easy. All right Wards, I want you to form a perimeter. Be attentive and visible."

All of the other Wards present complained, but started to move out.

Armsmaster finally exited the front doors. "Advent. I take it this is what you meant when you left?"

"Yeah, I heard Tattletale shouting for help." She gave a sheepish shrug.

He frowned as he considered things. "Hmm. Your Thinker power feeds you auditory information. Not the strangest thing. I heard from the responding officers that you have stated that Tattletale is a victim here. Could you explain?"

"Sure. Coil grabbed her off the street, told her she could work for him or get shot in the head. She decided she didn't want to die. Then he started to torture her today for information on me. I intervened and captured him and all of his men in that base," Advent explained as she walked over to Tattletale and winked as she put her hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, that's nice. Thanks Advent," the girl said as she even felt her Thinker headache fade.

"Hey, Armsmaster? Should we go catch Coil and his spies in the PRT red handed as they try to escape?" Advent asked casually.

Tattletale snorted in humor. Trolling, eh?

"And how do you know that?" he asked as he unlimbered his halberd.

"I kept an ear out for it, as I expected him to try almost immediately."

"Miss Militia! Assault! Come here! We've got a situation," Armsmaster called out as he readied himself mentally for battle with his own halberd.

The two other ran over quickly.

"Coil's trying to escape! We need to stop it as fast as possible!" he explained.

"Wow, he's only been captured for like half an hour," Assault said even as he grinned.

"Fast? Sure?" Advent said innocently as she grabbed all four of them and teleported them to the detention area in the basement of the PRT building.

Thomas Calvert stopped disrobing with his Coil costume down about his knees. His three moles immediately raised their submachine guns and fired in one smooth action.

All of the bullets stopped in the air between them. "Whoops," Advent lied while she tried to not grin or smile.

"Calvert," Armsmaster said in a furious tone of voice.

"God dammit. This isn't what it looks like! I'm being framed," Calvert said desperately.

Tattletale blinked as she realized her power responded. A smile blossomed across her face. "He's got two people in medical that can fake his MRI scan."

"Oh, really? Do you have their names?" Miss Militia asked as Advent zapped the moles with a nerve disruption blast.

They collapsed bonelessly.

"No, but I can describe them a bit? Ones older and blond. The other is younger and female, with a very expensive Tinker tech smartphone that she _shouldn't_ be able to afford. A Dragontech 2011 Orbus," she supplied helpfully and then giggled.

"Go," Armsmaster ordered. "Back into your cell, _Coil_. I'm sure Director Piggot will be less than thrilled with your actions."

Advent really wanted to be a fly on the wall, but she really shouldn't. She watched as Assault moved over to start stripping the PRT moles of weapons and just pushed them into three more cells. "Well, it looks like you have everything under control for now. Do you mind if I come back tomorrow to fill up the supply room here in the building?"

Armsmaster's helmeted head turned to her. "You want to donate even more... supplies?"

"And maybe some sort of national depot for the rest of the Protectorate and Wards in other cities?" she replied as she tilted her head.

"I- Thank you. That's generous. I'll talk to Legend and get the logistics in motion before you come back tomorrow." Armsmaster actually _smiled_.

"Wow, he's not a robot-" Tattletale said just as a surge of psychic energy spirited her away with Advent.

* * *

Alec looked up to see two figures appear. "Oh, fuck me. That isn't even fair."

Tattletale blinked as she looked around the Undersider's lair. "Well, that answers that question." She worked the edge of her mask and pulled it off with a wince of pain from the rubbery cement. "Alec, this is Taylor. Taylor, that's Alec. He can be a jerk."

Taylor pulled down her mask to her neck. "Hello." She dispersed the psychic energy so to not leave any residue behind. No need to make it easy to be tracked.

"I somehow don't think you plan on joining the Undersiders," the nerve-controlling master said as his game avatar on the TV screen died to a Russian sniper behind him.

"Nope. But, you know, the Undersiders don't have a boss anymore. So I figured I'd try to convince you to try something different," she replied in a casual tone. "Say? Do you want me to heal you up a bit? Carefully?"

"I'm not hurt," he replied as he dropped his controller and sat up as Lisa headed to her room to change.

"Nerve damage."

"Oh. Um, maybe not right now? That would probably fuck with my emotions. So what, we become heroes? Because I'm pretty sure I'd suck as a hero," Alec said as he started to calm down.

"You _might_ be surprised. I know for a fact you would actually sacrifice yourself to save someone you care for," Taylor said in a pensive tone. Oh, damn. Not now. She moved to the matching lounge chair and wrapped herself with her large cloak to curl up tightly into a ball of neurosis. "I- Please just- Stay there." She shivered. A lot, even as she ducked her head down to start crying. At least she kept it quiet.

"That's fucked," Alec commented to himself. He went back to his game and frowned at being kicked from his team. "Shit." He'd show them.

Lisa walked out of her bedroom. "Well, pooey. I was hoping to get more information." Oh well, time for lunch and one of Alec's pilfered beer. She really needed it right now.

An hour later, the sound of dogs started to filter in. They started growling at the strange figure with its odd scent.

"Kill-!" Rachel shouted, siccing the dogs on the figure.

"NO!" Tattletale shouted as she ran out from her bedroom. "Oh, god..?"

Taylor stared at the dogs as they stopped two feet from her and flopped on the ground with their tails wagging and tongues lolling out. "Good doggies," she whispered as her eyes glowed with ethereal energy. "Don't want you to hurt yourselves on me."

Rachel looked between the two of them. "What the fuck? Why is she here?" She moved closer to Tattletale to threaten her with her solid presence.

"Rachel, meet Taylor. She replaced our boss, as he is busy sitting in a PRT cell." She gulped at the casual use of too much Master power.

Alec turned away from his cartoonish fighter game. "So now we have to steal our own money? Man, that sucks."

"So what does she want?" Rachel demanded.

"I want to fix things," Taylor said, her eyes still glowing. "Would you like to understand people _and_ dogs? Alec, do you want to be able to protect yourself while you can't Master someone? You too, Lisa."

Alec raised an eyebrow. "As long as it doesn't come with a teeny, tiny living space."

"Nope." She stood up to her full height and walked over to him and touched him for a second. "There you go, minor Brute package." Not that she needed to touch to do that. But not everyone needed to know her range of 'more than the city.'

"Only a Brute? I'm saddened," Lisa said with a grin as she tried to read the girl as she enhanced them. Soldiering on, hmm?

"For now. Once we are better friends, maybe more. So would you guys really be averse to trying to be heroes?" she asked Alec and Rachel.

"And how are we going to afford this?" the slightly younger boy asked.

"You mean beyond the millions that Coil used to own? One sec," Taylor replied as she reached through a stuttering of dimensions (and back), then pulled it out with the large, five inch wide diamond. "Here, have a useless paperweight worth millions." She tossed it to Alec.

"I'm not really into new age crystals," he protested.

"That's a diamond."

"Huh? Neat."

Lisa snorted, then started laughing. "Oh, man. Physical wealth means nothing to your power. Well, I'm in. Means I don't get arrested by Advent here and sent home."

Rachel grabbed the diamond from Alec and studied it. "Millions? But worthless?"

"Because the diamonds cartels would try to say that because it's 'artificial' it's worthless compared to ones dug out of the earth with blood and sweat." She held out a hand and created another one in under ten seconds (which caused a nice breeze) and then tossed Alec the new diamond.

"Shiny," he said to himself. "Say, you wouldn't want to go and deal with a problem in Montreal?"

"No. There is a non-zero chance I could fall under his sway, even temporarily. And that's a bad end for just about everyone."

Lisa went as pale as the snow outside. "Yeah, that would be bad."

Alec frowned a second, then nodded. "Okay. Damn, I'd hoped-" he muttered as he spun the crystal in his hands.

"It's not impossible, but let's not screw it up by being idiots." Taylor shrugged.

"Wow, I was messed up there," Rachel said as she started to think back on just this last half an hour. "Heel!"

Her dogs ran over as they wagged their tails for pats on their head. She crouched down with a smile and started petting away.

The door opened and a big, black teen with cornrow dreadlocks stepped in. "What the hell, people?" His gaze froze at the sight of the white girl wearing the white and silver outfit sans mask.

"Hey, Brian! Our boss is in prison and Taylor here wants us to work for her," Alec said flippantly as he turned back to his game system.

"It's a little more involved than that, Alec," Lisa said in an annoyed tone. "Brian, meet Taylor. Taylor, this is Brian. Our boss kidnapped and tortured me today. Then Advent here smashed her way through his base, rescued me and captured the entire gang on site."

"Coil?" Brian asked as he narrowed his eyes as he recalled the story on the news, all the while he studied the bashful girl. With a blush on her cheeks?

Taylor closed her eyes and tapped into her biomanipulation to keep herself from having a second freakout. "Yes, Coil. So, I just suggested that I try to convince you guys to go legit. Because I now have the vigilante's cut of the villain's money and equipment." The PRT and Protectorate could have the bases as far as Taylor cared.

Brian looked over at Lisa.

"He was loaded, we probably wouldn't have to work for the rest of our lives if we just put it all into stocks or bonds," she explained with her impish grin on her face.

"And my sister?" Brian asked as he controlled his temper.

"Coil never intended to do anything to finish your deal so you could leave." She winced at his angry look and held up her hands to placate him. "Wait a second before you go off on me. Coil is a sociopath and psychopath. He tortured all you at least once to find out if you planned to betray him in 'timelines' he discarded."

"What the heck are you talking about?" he asked as he turned back to Lisa.

"He could split his 'reality' on a choice. Kidnap you or not kidnap you. And in the one timeline where he kidnapped you, he would torture you from information. At the end though, he could decided to only take the timeline where he didn't kidnap you. And remember everything you spilled during the non-existent torture."

"Sounds like bullshit," he replied as his face showed his great disbelief.

Taylor hummed to herself in distraction. Must distract herself. "I could show you, but it's nasty."

"You can show me being tortured!" Alec said as he raised his hand. He did not even look away from his game.

She nodded slowly as she transferred the memories to her network. Then she pulled out a spare terminal and set it on the table.

A huge hologram screen appeared and covered the wall (and the TV) in front of them. Two of Coil's mercenaries dragged Alec into the room and slammed him down into the seat and tied him down with a long chain and padlock. A blindfold covered his eyes. One of the mercs almost tripped and fell. He stood back up and the slapped Alec hard enough across the face to send blood and spittle to land on the ground.

"Mr. Pitter, administer truth serum epsilon. Young Vasil, just so you understand what is going to happen, you will be injected with a chemical that lowers your self-control. Epsilon is a rather nasty Tinkertech drug. Instead of _dulling_ your mind and pain receptors, it amplifies the body's ability to feel pain," Coil explained from what would be behind the screen.

"Yeah, you can't do anything my old man couldn't do better," Alec drawled in an unconcerned manner. He hissed in pain as a glowing purple fluid got injected into his neck.

"He'll start to feel the effects after thirty seconds," Pitter said. He nervously pushed his round, wire rimmed glasses up back up his nose.

After a blip forward, Coil ordered, "Break his pinky finger. Slowly."

The next ten minutes kept the Undersiders riveted in horror as Coil forced the Alec on the screen to reveal everything about himself and his father and family.

"-enough-" Alec said as he felt vaguely nauseous.

The screen disappeared to leave the TV with Alec's gamed paused on the screen.

"That was all true?" Brian asked. "Even being forced to use her boyfriend to-"

"Yup. Dad was a fucker. What did you expect from the Heartbreaker? Man, I was a little bitch and broke after only two fingers. Cherish did worse for my birthday," the young man said. "Say, Boss? Can we go break Coil out of prison and crucify him?"

"No!" Taylor called out from the kitchen. She came out and ate a saltine cracker with intense focus. "Sorry. I needed something in my stomach." And to be out of that room and listening to the radio across the city. Not that boy screaming his lungs out. Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

"So what's our first heroic act going to be?" Lisa asked the taller girl.

"Hmm." Taylor looked out through the dirty windows and the even dirtier windows of the warehouse. "How do you guys feel about rescuing some dogs from Hookwolf?"

"I really want to mess him up," Rachel said with a nearly feral grin. She realized that this emotion matched across hominid and canine mindsets.

"Well, with you as our heavy hitter, it shouldn't be too bad. And why is everyone giving me a strange look?" Brian asked.

"Oh, right. She hasn't Bruted you yet. Ha! Right now I could- OUCH!" Alec cried out as Lisa stepped over and flicked his ear hard enough to make a crack sound.

"No picking on the non-Brutes," the blonde said as she rolled her eyes.

"Uh, Bruted?" the leader of the Undersiders asked.

"Biomanipulation along with upgrading your skeleton a little bit." Taylor walked over and touched his arm (not his chest! Ignore the muscles!) to remove the alien Shard while keeping his power. She even tweaked it to have just a touch of Trump she knew it _could_ develop. "And... that should do it. Even finished the last of healing up your puncture wound. You are not bulletproof. Hookwolf can kill you, but expect that people might break if you punch them too hard."

"Fucking shit. You _are_ going to clean up the Bay, aren't you?" Brian asked in growing wonder. What would it be like to not live in a craptastic city?

Taylor gave him a cautious smile. "My dad is going to stay at the rig until Mom gets released from Master/Stranger lock-down. All her fault-"

Her wrist beep-beeped. Everyone stared at her.

"Um, got a call." Taylor held up her wrist to talk at it. "This is Advent." She winced as she heard Armsmaster's acerbic tone. "I returned the victim to her residence. And legally, I can't arrest her for being known as a villain by the PRT, only if she is in the process of committing a crime. And last I heard, being tortured by a criminal mastermind isn't actually illegal." She listened for about two minutes. "Excuse me, Armsmaster, but I did read every law and rule pertaining to parahumans in the United States. What you are asking me to do is very sketchy. And I've pretty much got them to agree to reforming as heroes anyways."

The Undersiders laughed at her put down expression.

"Yes, I do understand that you will try to arrest them for outstanding warrants and I won't get in your way," she finally said. "Could you make sure that Resurgence is treated okay while in lockup? Thanks."

The blonde flopped on the brown couch and started laughing hysterically. "Oh, that's too, too good! He's under orders to treat you with kid gloves because they really, really want you to go to the next Endbringer fight." She stopped laughing at looked over at Taylor more closely. "Hmm. Glad we have a month or two before the next one. We can work at making you more stable by that time."

Taylor nodded jerkily. "I-I know. I'm trusting you a _lot_ , Lisa. Right now you are the person that can hurt me the most in the whole world."

"Did you give her some more power?" Rachel asked as she studied them both.

The other Undersider girl shook her head as she twisted to sit up. "No. She's barely out of a really bad place and if someone knew the right words, could set her off of cause her to try and commit suicide. I so want to fuck those bitches up, you know?"

"They are _civilians_ and attacking them would not be heroic," the new girl said to her (hopefully!) new friend.

"Even-?"

"Yes, even her. And I have... sort of a plan. I could study for my GED in a day and start college the next day. A couple of my powers stack mentally."

"Hmm. That's useful. Oh, _that's_ what you mean by what you would grant for now." Lisa's eyes nearly shone in excitement.

Taylor stepped back at the expression. "Um, I'm going to go track down Hookwolf's fighting ring? Shouldn't take me that long."

* * *

Hookwolf stood on a small raised platform as he watched to mutts tear into each other, but his mind worked on other matters. Kaiser wanted a solution to the new hero. Even if required finding her civilian ID and taking their family hostage.

The crowd started to boo and shout. Hookwolf turned his attention back to the dogs that slowly backed away from each other.

"Denver, you told me you trained these dogs," the parahuman shouted at the dog handler.

"I did-"

"Something is coming," Stormtiger suddenly called out.

Something or _someone_ smashed through all four walls.

"The Undersiders? Are you stupid or... insane?" Hookwolf said as he slowly let his voice trail off.

The attackers had three of those dog-beasts of Bitch's, but the last wall had been punched through by _Grue_. Not one of the dog monsters.

"This is a superhero raid! You are all under citizen's arrest!" Tattletale shouted out as she hopped off the back of her ride. "If you don't have a power, if you get down and stay still we will not hurt you!"

"But please, do resist. I have some _issues_ to work out on Nazi scum," Grue said in his spooky, echoing voice from his helmet and his roiling cloud of darkness that spread along the ground in awave away from him.

Cricket touched her neck for a second. Her electronic, artificial voice called out, "Heroes? You are just cowards and thieves."

Bitch smiled under her new, very professional looking mask. "That was before today. Right, Regent?"

"Well, you know, they haven't met our new boss after she arrested our _old_ boss," the ren-faire reject replied, happy that his new mask (that looked identical to his old one) no longer muffled his voice at all.

The tin sheets of metal that made up the roof of the warehouse all ripped off the frames in a loud cacophony of destruction. The lights flickered and then stabilized as the Advent reshaped the metal into a large, polished ball of tin.

"That's me, if you hadn't figured that out," Advent said as she glowed while floating in the air above the warehouse.

"We aren't punks like Stärke," Hookwolf said as he started to sprout blades and take on his iconic form. "Get them!" He charged towards Bitch and her hellhound as his hooks, pins and blades tore into the concrete in a spray of sparks.

"Come at me, bastard," Bitch called out as she readied a shiny, new heavy crowbar.

Hookwolf leaped at her, only to see her dodge left. He slammed to the ground and then Angela _moved_ and bit down hard on his forearm and then used her clawed hands with near human dexterity to rip the limb right off. He turned to face the more dangerous creature when Bitch long jumped over ten feet to land next to his head and slammed a crashing hit to his face with the fifteen pound crowbar. The heavy dent started to fill back in with new blades when a whole new dog ripped off his hind leg as Hookwolf shook his head in a daze.

"Oh no! I'm so scared! The Mad Max wannabe is going to slice me with her martial arts weapons until I bleed!" Regent decreed in a very loud, silly voice. "Not."

Cricket tripped and flipped her fall into a roll, then jerked out of the way as Tattletale shot at her with her pistol. _Her funeral_. The cage fighter changed targets and rushed at the girl in lavender and black at full speed. Usually normal people could barely see her.

So Tattletale ducking two of her slices of her kama threw her off her game. Her leg spasmed and froze her motion for just a split second and Tattletale straight-kicked her in the stomach hard enough to send her onto her back.

Brutus huffed and then leaped forward to carefully catch her arms under his claws. He then growled right in her face.

"I'd _really_ suggest you surrender. He's a might peckish and upset at how you Nazis treat dogs," Regent said helpfully

Cricket tried to wriggle free, but stopped when Brutus lightly nipped at her ear and then growled _louder._ She went totally still.

Stormtiger charged Grue, a grin on his face under his mask. Grue's darkness exploded outwards, but he ignored it and trusted in his wind senses. He sent out two cutting bursts of air at the black-clad villain and then blinked as Grue leaped up and over him. The wind puffed to help keep Grue in position as he spun around and started throwing rapid punches at him.

Grue smiled as he lightly tagged Stormtiger. A little faster, harder. He winced as a slice of wind cut his leather jacket and scratched his arm. His snap punch cracked the air with how fast it lashed out and rattled Stormtiger and it hit his mask three times.

Two minutes later, Stormtiger staggered out of the inky darkness.

"Man, that felt good. I could get to like being a hero," Grue said with smirk you could hear in his voice.

"Beating up Nazis is very therapeutic," Advent agreed as she landed on the ground and set her smooth, three foot ball of tin on the ground. "Man, they really don't treat their dogs well, do they?"

"Um, what about all the civilians?" Grue asked.

"I've got them handcuffed." She focussed on healing the poor animals and treating their near feral anger from abuse.

"Wow, we are going to have to call her Dog Whisperer II," Regent said as he rode over on Judas and looked down from his vantage high up on the giant dog.

"It's just healing," Advent said to downplay her biomanipulation a bit.


	4. Interlude 1 - Worldly Reactions

Rebecca Costa-Brown read the first report out of Brockton Bay at 12:30 AM Eastern Time, which meant she read it at 9:30 AM Pacific Time. How would Coil react to this? Or would Kaiser once again claw up from another set back? Definitely a high tier power, if they could crush those ships.

She knew exactly how strong you had to be to do that.

Half an hour later, the trio of new parahumans had captured their first villain. The Empire Eighty-Eight lackey had not stood a chance, but it definitely answered what they planned in general terms at least.

The report on capturing _Lung_ an hour later caught her attention. Advent and Everyman shared the defeat by _physically overpowering_ the dragon of Kyushu so she took a greater notice. The Triumvirate had not fought him directly, but the East-North-East Protectorate had several decent level heroes and Lung had easily exceeded their power.

She walked into her 11:00 AM PRT and Protectorate status and planning meeting and let the heavy door close and lock behind her. "Good morning people," she said politely to her subordinates.

"Chief Director. I've got list of hot spots today and Watchdog's list of possible hotspots for the upcoming week," Tom Bralley said as he brought up the projector screen.

New York City, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Brockton Bay. The usual suspects, really.

The first four cities had their gangs listed and possible actions in play. Brockton Bay, strangely, came up for a good reason.

"-and in Brockton Bay, we have a tentatively powerful new trio of parahumans that look to be pushing back on the gangs. While we can't get anything on the girl Advent, from the other two we get that they could likely clean up most of the gangs on their own. And they haven't even _done_ much. Unfortunately, if the Empire Eighty-Eight goes down, the Teeth and the Ambassadors will likely try to move in unless the new capes showcase a lot more _violent_ power than shown."

"And the report that they outpowered Lung?" Costa-Brown asked.

"Watchdog just thinks they hit him hard and fast enough that he could not ramp up. PRT analysts are pretty sure that Advent's telekinesis is Manton limited. Otherwise she shouldn't need to punch anyone, you know?" Tom explained.

"Make sure it is marked tentative instead of just assumed. She may not want to use it because hitting a person with that power would be like hitting an ant with a sledgehammer," Matt Paulson suggested.

"Good point."

"Put out the word that we are interested in recruiting them or at least getting them to ally with us. Advent could be very useful against Leviathan if she can affect his waves," Costa-Brown decided aloud. "Make it a high priority."

"The Slaughterhouse 9 dropped off the radar in Kansas, with odds having them sneaking into Pennsylvania. Nibolg and the Machine Army are contained, but the odds are ever so slowly ticking upwards of a breakout. The Elite situation is also slowly ticking up towards a large confrontation, probably on the East Coast as they try to grow their organization."

Rebecca Costa-Brown listened and wondered why today felt different.

* * *

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 **Topic: New Triumvirate? [Votom ad Vita]**  
 **In: Boards ► USA ► Brockton Bay**  
 **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Posted On Jan 7th 2011:  
Any news pertaining to the new trio of heroes goes here.

[Update] Everyman, Resurgence and Advent are their names.  
[Update 2] Just got a rumor that they named their team 'Votom ad Vita". Vow to Life in Latin?

(Showing page 18 of 21)

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
I'm just saying that no way are these three as powerful as the Triumvirate. Oh, they might be as powerful as, say, Alexandria. But she's unofficially the weakest of the Triumvirate, even if normally the hardest to hurt.

So quit shit posting about them being more powerful, it just makes you look dumb.

► **Laotsunn** (Kyushu Survivor)  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Shut your trap, Voidboy. I heard from my cousin that Everyman and Advent just pounded Lung into the ground. He and Oni Lee couldn't even hurt them. Mush isn't totally weak either and is usually tough enough to flee.

Advent blasted his armor right off of him.

So it sounds like we finally got the heroes we need.

► **Dawgsmiles** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Updated list of powers for Votom ad Vita:

Everyman: Brute, Mover and Blaster.  
Resurgence: Brute, Mover and Blaster (and _really_ doesn't like sex slavers).  
Advent: Brute(?), Mover, Blaster, Shaker.

One of these guys probably has some sort of Thinker and/or ability, too. They found the ABB brothel pretty easily.

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Got a new rumor about Resurgence. Guess someone suspected that Resurgent and Everyman were 'normals' in super armor and Resurgence revealed a Thinker ability to detect emotions. Got her in trouble and Master/Stranger quarantined.

► **Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Man, you go to school one day and the whole city changes. Got to admit, finding out that the Bay got cleaned up and each of the major gangs lost some of their capes. Glad Lung is off the board!

Go team Votom ad Vita!

► **Brocktonite03** (Veteran Member)  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Got some breaking news. I'm sitting in my office doing the accountant thing when, with a zap, thirty people appear on the lawn of the PRT's ground. Most of them are military types all laying on the ground.

Grabbed my camera and took some pictures. Looks like Advent and two other capes. I don't recognize the girl in purple and lavender, but the guy fits the description of Coil.

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Whoa? Man, Coil does look like he needs a meal or ten. Look at all the PRT troopers showing up! They are dragging Coil inside while it looks like they are taking pictures of the blonde girl's hands.

► **Nod**  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
I happened to be nearby and ran over. I heard one of the troops call the girl Tattletale. She's the mysterious Undersider, right? Anyways, it looks like she got worked over. Then Advent touched her and she's healed?

Can we just call her Trump 9 already?

► **Chrome**  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Trump BS, you mean. No way is she new. Has to be someone that is disguising their power. Looks like there's a thread about Coil's arrest where they want this information to go. See you there.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
So did anyone ever see where Advent and Tattletale went? They just disappeared with Armsmaster, Miss Militia and Assault.

Can't believe I got threatened with a warning for asking about Advent in a thread where she was involved.

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21  
(Showing page 19 of 21)

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Rumor is that Advent teleported them (Mover 8?) to recapture Coil as he attempted to escape. Supposedly he had more than three moles in the PRT and two people have been fired by saying the wrong thing to Director Piggot today. She's on a total warpath.

► **Divide**  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
So, just so I can be clear, Advent cleaned up the bay by herself, helped capture capes from the three big gangs of the city and then captured the ringleader of another gang.

WTF? Is she Parahuman Jesus?

► **Miraclemic**  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Dude, not even Eidolon is Parahuman Jesus. That's reserved for Hero if he comes back from the dead.

► **Ekul**  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Wow, the thread died while every got in on that Coil thread. Living in the South Docks (which aren't really south or part of the docks), I heard this massive metal ripping sound. I live up on the top floor of my apartment bldg and so I can see above above most of the buildings around and Advent is like only a thousand feet away and has ripped the roof of that old warehouse on Cherry Creek Blvd.

Calling the PRT right now, but it looks like some sort of cape fight.

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Yeah, just got the alert across the police and PRT dispatch. Suspected fight between Advent and more E88.

► **Ekul**  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Advent disappeared, but I threw on a coat and ran over there and shit got wrecked. Bitch and her friends are there, mopping up the remains of an Empire dogfighting ring. Her monster dogs beat the shit out of Hookwolf somehow and the other Undersiders had Cricket and Stormtiger tied up. More than forty normals arrested, too.  
Had no idea that guy that worked at the Brockton Bay Budget grocery store was an E88 sympathizer.

► **Ultracut**  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Starting to see pictures online. I guess some of the people at the dog fight took them. Man, they are saying that Advent didn't do anything but rip the roof off.

The police arrived first and started to take charge. Advent looked towards downtown and said something about Armsmaster showing up and zap, she and the Undersiders disappeared.

So is Advent a hero or villain?

► **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
Some of our boys in blue think that she's a hero trying to reform the Undersiders. But I think Hellhound has some warrants out for her arrest on murder charges. So who knows?

► **Klar Macht**  
Replied On Jan 8th 2011:  
What are they feeding kids in Brockton Bay, anyways? But I think people are missing the big picture here. The E88 have lost a fifth of their people in the last two days alone. Kaiser ain't going to let that shit stand. Expect to see a big response in the next few days.

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

* * *

Kaiser waved off the server and sat down at the center table. His two bodyguards flanked him and set themselves for a wait. The witching hour started as the clock in the corner beeped at midnight.

Ten minutes later, the door opened and a demon masked man walked in to stand behind an empty seat at the table, an unmasked man sat on the other side. Only a few moments later two trashy stereotypes came in and sat at the big table.

The leader of the Empire Eighty-Eight so desired to send him running to one of the booths, but the maggot of a human actually led the second most powerful gang of parahumans in the city.

A woman in a jester themed outfit walked in and sat in a booth. She leaned back to accentuate her feminine charms and got a glare from the trashy Tinker of the Merchants. Several more independent villains came in and then one military garbed man who sat behind another empty chair.

Finally, fifteen minutes after midnight, Faultline appeared with her menagerie of monsters. With a small swagger, the welding masked mercenary sat at the far end of the table from Kaiser.

"Let's get started. We have a problem," Kaiser said to break the silence.

"No fucking shit, crackerjack! All of us got hit by the second coming of god-damned Scion and lost people. What the fuck are we going to do about it?" Skidmark asked in his rather common and uncouth matter.

"That is the question." Kaiser turned to the ABB and the military garbed man. "I take it you represent Lung and Coil."

The craggy and scarred unmasked Asian lieutenant of the ABB nodded. "We will release Lung so that he can have revenge for this indignity. We can then fight together against them afterwards, if it comes to that."

Oni Lee started to pull out a knife, then pushed it back into his sheath.

Kaiser would normally be only too happy to hear of Lung's defeat and fall, but the fact that heroes did it on their first day? He'd take the devil he knows than the ones he didn't. "Yes, we both have people we need released. The revelation of the Undersiders switching sides is less than amusing."

"Coil has plans and contingencies. We'll cooperate with the villains here to deal with Votom. Is this a truce?" the militant looking mercenary asked.

"Indeed, no fighting between villains for now. We'll trade contact information and start to plan how to remove these overpowered pests." He looked among all the villains. "We may not be able to have the leeway for the unwritten rules, so prepare to be flexible if need be."

None of the villains looked happy at that, but none of them looked surprised either.

"My team will only defend ourselves for now. Unless someone is willing to pay for our services during this crisis?" Faultline said in a no-nonsense matter.

Kaiser resisted the urge to curl his lip in distaste.

"Bitch, you be extorting us," Skidmark snapped out.

"I'm a mercenary, not a charity."

"Cock-sucker loose cunt-lips bitch," the black leader of the merchants mumbled. "Drugs or a Tinker vehicle?"

"We don't deal in drugs, Merchant," Faultline said in a very cold voice.

"So then I'll get Squealer to make you a pimped out fucking Tinker transport," he said.

"And a year's worth of maintenance."

"Shit fucker, you got me by my sweaty balls, ho. Sure, a year of maintenance." Fucking bitch.

"Skiddie! That's not easy!" Squealer complained.

Kaiser sighed to himself. This is what he had to work with? He had better send Kreig to talk to those magicians in New York City.


	5. A-Class Trip

Taylor floated down into her lab at three in the morning after a nightmare awoke her. "Good morning, Eve," she called out.

"Good morning, Taylor. The Birdcage is secure, the Endbringers are stable and quiet. Dragon continues to upgrade her systems after you relaxed her restrictions one level. Collating information on the Blasphemies continues. Slaughterhouse 9 information indicates they are headed into the New England area, but will likely swing into the New York or New Jersey area first. The Machine Army continues adapting and evolving in quarantine while Nibolg and his creatures are reenacting the Revolutionary War. Ashbeast is nearing another already evacuated village. Understanding of Sleeper eludes the system. Entity behavior stable as it puts out a forest fire in Chile."

"Thank you, Eve." Taylor threw up visual displays and read through all the PRT reports on A-Class or S-Class incidents in the last six months in five minutes. "How redacted are the Slaughterhouse 9 reports based on information I have given you about Manton?"

"Heavily redacted. Moderate likelihood of editing by Chief Director Costa-Brown or people at her behest," the virtual intelligence replied in its flat tone.

"Any worries from Tattletale's browsing habits?" she asked.

"Apparent searches are about psychological disorders and treatment."

Taylor felt a pang of regret at keeping a bit of an eye on her friend, but she could only trust her so far. Already too far. But she could not hide any of her problems from the Thinker. "Hmm. Extrapolate how long it will take the Machine Army to break their quarantine?"

"100 % chance that they could break the quarantine now. Hypothesize that it is gaining strength for an eventual conflict with the world. Estimate that they expect to have enough strength in five to thirty years."

"Does Watchdog or other PRT analysts agree?" Taylor asked.

"They postulate a ten to forty year period. Recommend electromagnetic signal quarantine. Machine Army shows sign of adjusting for observers."

"I might need to deal with-"

"Alert. A-Class threat declared in St. Louis. Parahuman Soul Slayer information updated as she appears to have started a rampage at the death of her lover from the local gang Grifters. The Protectorate and PRT just received a report of the death of Protectorate hero Firebreak who attempted to protect civilians in the crossfire," Even called out as alarm tones sounded.

"Inform my parents when they get down here and keep my location updated so they can catch up," she replied as her Advent uniform materialized around her in a shower of sparkles. "90 second count and then I'll leave."

* * *

Eidolon appeared in a flare of red-blue energy as he shed energy from the teleport power. He landed the roof of the PRT headquarters of St. Louis and looked to the east at the damaged arch barely visible in the darkness.

A flash of light appeared and stopped in the form of a young woman wearing white and silver.

"You are a new face," Eidolon called out as he held out a hand to stop the four PRT troopers from attacking her.

"Advent, out of Brockton Bay," she said in an odd tone of awe that did not sound quite right.

"Up early or late?" he asked as he walked to the door.

"Early." The reply came across rather curtly.

"Sir, did you want to escort this Advent to the Deputy Director Martins?" the rooftop guard asked.

"Yes, thanks. Return to your duties." Eidolon turned back to the girl as his power squirmed and changed, seeking something that would fit his current need. Closing the door behind them, he led the way to the elevator. "I'm surprised how fast you responded. I thought we just sent out the alert."

"You did. I just flew here the instant I found out," she lied to downplay her intelligence gathering and ability.

Eidolon thought her to be inflating her abilities. "Hmm."

Minutes later they were led into a large briefing room with a pretty, forty-something woman with black hair at the head of the table.

"Eidolon, glad you could make it. With one of the Triumvirate here, I'm sure this will get handled soon." Deputy Director Martins turned to the other new cape. "And you are?"

"Advent, independent hero out of Brockton Bay," she offered. "Everyman and Resurgence should be here in about twenty-two minutes." She blinked in surprise. "Make that about fifteen minutes. They are stacking their flight powers to get here even faster."

"And who are they?" Martins asked as she raised one dark eyebrow in an arch.

"My parents. They can't fly as fast as I can." Not that anyone could, she mused to herself.

A woman that seemed made of crystal walked up. "Diamond Angel, leader of Protectorate St. Louis. This is Synapse, my second in command and our last in command, Neutron Shadow."

"Thanks for the backup," Synapse, the only male, said as his hands played over the bandolier with odd metal spikes sticking out of the. "Hopefully we can take this bitch down. Firebreak was a friend."

Four other Protectorate heroes arrived before Everyman and Resurgence made it to the meeting.

And during the whole time, Advent felt _off_ and on edge. This situation felt wrong.

Diamond Angel turned to Eidolon. "I don't have enough experience to lead this mission, so I would prefer that you take charge please, Eidolon."

He nodded, none too pleased but he hid it well to those that did not possess psychic empathy. "According to reports, Firebreak confronted Soul Slayer as she attacked the local villain gang 'Grifters'. Witnesses claimed she shouted out to the Grifters that this was in revenge for the murder of her lover."

"We are just waiting for her to take a shot at the Grifter's again," Deputy Director Martins explained.

"So we will likely have to deal with them at the same time," Chevalier said as he nodded his black and gold armored head.

Advent put more of her attention into her biomanipulation power-sense. She kept a display of outrage off her face. Someone had mastered the local Protectorate and Wards. It displayed similarities to emotion and memory tampering that a good psyker could do.

She listened with half an ear to the rest of the meeting and followed Eidolon to the guest quarters for visiting heroes.

"You can nap or rest here, as I'm sure some of you were rousted from your sleep," Eidolon said. "Chevalier, myself and Darknova are needed for a planning meeting with Diamond Angel."

"Um Eidolon? Can I bother you for a moment before that? I need some, er, advice?" Advent said with only a little acting required.

He chuckled as he hid how tired his body really was. "For a few minutes. This way?"

"Mom? Dad? I'll be right back," she said in a happy tone. _'Keep an ear out. There's a Master operating in the background here.'_

"Just don't annoy the very busy hero, Advent," Everyman said.

Scarlet Swan shook her head. "Huh, I thought that was just a rumor. Three people in one family. It must be hard."

Resurgence nodded. "Advent isn't fully recovered from her trigger event, but she wants to do so much good."

"Good for her! Sometimes _doing_ something helps the most," the red wearing Protectorate hero from Denver said.

Eidolon took her out into the hall, telling the other leaders that he would catch up. "So, what sort of question do you have?"

Advent's eyes glowed as she disabled two listening devices. "If anyone asks, I needed help with how to deal with the crazy public going ga ga over me having a lot of power."

The green wearing hero straightened up. "What is going on?"

"There is a Master in play. Every one of the St. Louis Protectorate and Wards appears to be compromised by someone that can modify emotions and memories. I happened to notice when I used my shaker power to check people that might need healing," Advent explained.

Glowing eyes under his hood narrowed. "Which means that this whole situation could be a play by the Master. I'll keep an eye out."

"I'm going to ask to see if they will allow me to patrol around, so I can get used to the layout of the city."

Eidolon nodded. "I'll put out the word to the PRT to let you patrol with your parents."

"Thanks!"

* * *

"NO THANKS, JERK!" she shouted at Eidolon twelve hours later as she shot higher into the stratosphere. She would much prefer to go back to being moderately bored then fighting for her life against the premiere hero of the United States. _'Mom, Dad! Keep back! He's planning to hit me with some sort of dimensionally exotic antimatter! Stay away!'_

The green and black wearing cape raised a hand and shot out pulses of energy at the dodging girl. She dodged three of the pulses, but the fourth slammed home. A nova burst into bright existence and then faded to reveal the unharmed girl.

Eidolon's eyes narrowed. That should have killed a normal brute. He even suspected that his long time friend would not survive it that easily. "You are going to pay for killing Legend!"

"He's not dead! I didn't kill anyone!" she shouted into the wind. Oh, wait. Eidolon couldn't even _hear_ her. She was the one with super senses! _Aggh!_ 'Eve, any luck at getting through to the Protectorate in Brockton Bay?'

'Someone has flagged you for Master/Stranger quarantine,' the virtual intelligence replied.

'Regular emergency line!' She shot forward faster, dodging three red beams the punctured mile wide holes in clouds in their passed.

'This is the PRT emergency line. Please state the nature of your emergency.'

'This is independent hero Advent. I am currently in a life and death fight with a mastered Protectorate hero. Sigma-Delta-One-Four-Charlie-Niner!'

A black dot appeared right in front of her.

'Shit! Black hole!' she blurted out as she grabbed the forming event horizon with her right hand.

'Is that the name of the parahuman you are fighting?' the PRT operator asked.

'NO! Eidolon just created a black hole in front of me,' Advent shouted grabbed at the energy of the space-time phenomena with her psychokinesis and sucked all the energy away to destabilize it.

A nuclear reaction exploded in her face, brighter than a thousand suns. A quick glance around showed only the icy tundra of the far north of Canada. Hopefully that didn't fry the whole hemisphere's electronics.

Wait, where did Eidolon go?

'I'm sorry, did you say Eidolon just threw a block hole at you?' the operator asked. 'Be warned that crank calling an official emergency number is a serious crime!'

Advent turned to find him just as he unleashed a black miasma that absorbed energy in improbable amounts.

'BUSY!' she mentally shouted as she flew backwards as fast as she could, only to rebound off a forcefield. 'Oh, fuck!'

A black blur hammered into Advent's side and dragged her out of Eidolon's kill-box as it lit up with superstring degenerate matter.

"You're parents can't save you, murderer!" Eidolon raged as a new power swelled fast to replace the useless forcefield.

"Eidolon! Stand down!" Alexandria ordered.

"I'll go through you too, Resurgence. You and Everyman. So just get out of my way," the greatest hero of the Protectorate shouted. He blasted at her with a nucleonic beam that rendered atoms down to their protons, electrons and neutrons in the most lethal manner possible.

And splashed across the underdeveloped chest of the fifteen year old girl that appeared in a blink. Another, smaller, nuclear event went off and sent Alexandria flying. "Alexandria, keep back! He's been throwing around antimatter and black holes!" she warned.

Alexandria responded by flying a defensive pattern, causing the five green beams to miss her by the barest margins.

'Did you just warn Alexandria there?' the flummoxed operator asked.

White rays of energy then struck Eidolon like the hammer of god. "Eidolon! Why isn't he responding?"

"He's been mastered. I thought he was immune to being mastered?" Advent called out.

'Advent, this is Director Piggot. Please respond and explain what is going on,' the leader of Brockton Bay's PRT said over the phone.

"Eidolon is mastered and trying to kill me, Alexandria and Legend. He thinks it is me and my parents and that we murdered Legend," she called out.

Legend zipped around the area at high speeds along with Advent, which confused Eidolon.

So when two armored figured dive bombed from outer space to slam in his back, they took him by surprise.

"What? But you are over there-?" Eidolon said as his brain processed conflicting information.

Alexandria streaked forward to plant both fists in his stomach at MACH 1 while Legend lit up and four timed pulses into his face.

With a boom, energy erupted from Eidolon and sent the four of them flying away from him.

"No more games!" he shouted.

Advent pursed her lips. "Go to sleep, Eidolon!" And then tried to light up every neuron with the unfettered might of the greatest human psyker to _ever_ exist.

Eidolon screamed in pain as his wellspring of powers flicked to two different defensive powers while keeping his phase shifted defense in place. He put everything into pushing the psionic power out of his head, to find no resistance as it left his mind.

"What?" he asked.

"Did it work? Is it undoing your mastering?" Advent asked as they fell down towards the snow far below them, the capes cracking at the speed the wind dragged at them as they reached freefall.

The Triumvirate member opened his mouth, only to find that memories popped and shattered to reveal the truth behind them. "Well, crap," he said eloquently. "I mean, yes."

"I think I managed to get him to break his mastering without frying too many of his neurons," Advent explained to the others as they sped up to catch them. She put her hands on each forearm and stopped their motion instantly.

'Repeat, Advent. Did you say that Eidolon has broken his mastering? Ask him for his master/stranger authorization codes,' Piggot demanded. 'Repeat after me: Master/Stranger authentication director level; Zulu, Zulu, Alpha, Zulu, One, Two, Three, Beta.'

Advent repeated the code and Eidolon gave out his own response.

"Put her on audio," Alexandria ordered as she changed directions to meet up with them. Legend, Everyman and Resurgence followed her.

"Would someone mind telling me what is going on?" her father asked.

"I was mastered by Deputy Director Martins. She's some sort of high powered Master with a Stranger ability to make you dismiss her as a threat," Eidolon explained.

"She rewrote memories and tied some very aggressive emotions to them. I could see that much, at least, with my bio-healing power," Advent explained helpfully.

"Advent, why didn't you do that attack to begin with?" Legend asked as he floated there.

"Um, I was getting a bit desperate because he now had four more targets that were a lot squishier than me? I- I don't want to lose my parents. It was bad enough- I made that armor to keep them safe, but it won't stand up to dimensional-cascading antimatter bursts and black holes." Advent shivered and hugged herself tight. She _had_ to keep her parents safe.

"Dimensionally cascading _what?_ " Legend turned to look at Eidolon.

"I was in a killing berserker rage," his long time friend said as he continued to study the girl in front of him.

Advent expanded her senses and listened and felt for damaged electronics. She narrowed her eyes at the dozens of people in trouble (and another four dozen just annoyed that their radios went kaput). Electronics flowed back together as she removed the damage from the EMP over the nearest five hundred miles. Outside that, people seemed fine.

 _'Soul Slayer spotted at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis. Protectorate and Wards are moving in with orders to stop her no matter what,'_ Eve said over her communication implant.

"The master is moving to remove Soul Slayer. I have to go," Advent said as she looked to the south.

"I'll go-" Legend said, only to be cut off from Advent disappearing into the distance.

The streak of light appeared in front the casino's main north side entrance in less than a second.

Diamond Angel blinked and looked at the girl in confusion. "I thought that Eidolon took care of you as some sort of threat to the Protectorate?"

"No time." Advent dashed through doors at a blur with her new super speed and sent out her mind to find any parahumans in the building. Her eyes narrowed in anger.

Bloody Ripper had his fingernail claws out in the storeroom of a large clothing store. "Why are we waiting? She's helpless," he demanded of Zero Fear.

His supposed leader just smirked under hooded mask that only showed the lower portion of her face. "Soon. I'll send her off in terror so that she can weed out some of the out of town Protectorate-"

Advent appeared in between them and Soul Slayer. "I think you guys have done more than enough for your master."

Zero Fear started and nearly tripped herself up in her robes. "How- What do you mean? I don't have a master!"

"Die, bitch!" Bloody Ripper shouted as he leaped forward and slashed at her in a flurry. He stepped back as he looked at a very strange thing in his experience.

"Eidolon hits _much_ harder," Advent said in a dry tone.

"Run!" Zero Fear shouted as she lashed out with all of her terror inducing power at the girl. And felt it bounce. She followed her own advice.

Ripper growled, showing his over large fangs. He ran off in a blur as he left sparks scraping from his claws along the ground and walls. "Hyper-Storm! We need that diversion!"

The young hero turned around. "She did a number on you, didn't she?" She touched her forehead with one forefinger. She almost felt something on the finger, but ignored it to deal with the memories.

Soul Slayer shivered and then her eyes opened. She saw a girl in silver and white pull her hand away from her forehead.

"Uh, did you touch me?" she asked.

"Is that bad?"

"People usually die," Soul Slayer stated mutely.

"It tingled a bit, but I'm absurdly tough." She gave the young woman a smile. Advent then held up a hand and let it glow brightly enough for Legend's keen eyes to spot through the cracks under the door.

The white and blue clad leader of the Protectorate blasted the door off its hinges. "Advent! You found her. Did you fix her being Mastered?"

"Yes, to both. Now we need to stop the local Protectorate and un-Master them," Advent said as she floated off the room. "They are only a couple of hundred feet away-"

The building rumbled and shook.

"Outside!" Legend ordered as he noted his response matched his actions with Eidolon

Advent scooped up Soul Slayer and took off in a blur. She set the villain down just out the door under eaves as monsoon rain and hail hammered the ground.

"This has to be Hyper-Storm. He must be out there running in the area to use his ability to create storms," Soul Slayer said as she looked around. Her homemade outfit of black slacks, blouse and Zorro mask made her look very out of place to the very professional heroes standing next to her. "Don't worry, I know a trick to stop him." She spun in a tight circle to build up up some momentum and then kicked the ground _hard_ at an angle in front of her to send a spray of debris out into the storm.

It lessened immediately to show the villainous speedster of the Grifter laying on the ground a few hundred feet away and to their left from his skid. He groaned loudly from his superspeed spill. No broken bones though.

"There she is! Her kill orders is signed! Take her down!" Diamond Angel shouted from off to the right a hundred feet near another entrance of the mall. She took off in a sprint towards them.

Synapse pulled out one of his many tuning forks on his bandelier and flicked it with a metal covered finger to unleash a blast of despair and depression.

Legend fuzzed into his breaker state of white energy, while Soul Slayer cringed and curled up a little bit.

Advent just looked at it in interest. One of her wellspring of powers must stop Master effects. Looks like three of the six right now, actually. "Enough of that." And the sound just _stopped_. Yay, psychokinesis. "Protectorate and Wards, there is a Master/Stranger in play. Please stop trying to attack the victim!"

With a burst of purple energy, Eidolon and Alexandria appeared.

"Diamond Angel, _Stop!_ " Legend shouted as he fuzzed back to his tights wearing blue and white outfit. "Protectorate stand down order Alpha-One! Authorization Niner-Delta-Beta-Charlie-Niner!"

The purple clad Synapse stopped to look over at his team leader as she came to a halt. Advent blurred to stand in between Soul Slayer and another black wearing hero that appeared only twenty feet behind them from a shadow step; Neutron Shadow. The mall wall behind them in shadow this afternoon ripped apart and shot at Advent and Soul Slayer.

Each one slid across a dome of force that Advent erected over herself and the four other Parahumans.

"They aren't stopping-" she called out, only to see Alexandria blur in a small arc and then punch Diamond Angel into a ten foot crater (and into unconsciousness).

"Holy shit!" Psynapse said as he bounded into the air on Lunar's lowered gravity. "Ticking Shade, take out Legend now!"

The Ward nodded her head as she shot forward at a time compression of one full magnitude, the most she could do in regular combat conditions. She dodged to the left, under and hopped over a three different 'laser' attacks. Her heart thundered in her chest, only to see a yellow arc of glowing sparks intercept her from Eidolon's left hand in a negligent manner. With an oof, she slammed into it and lost concentration.

"Even in these crappy conditions, my telekinesis will trump yours," Neutron Shadow boasted. "I won't let you hurt my little sister!"

Advent narrowed her eyes as her power manipulation filled her in on the sister's weakness. She bent light above them and the sun's light returned and removed almost all the shadows in the area. "And I think we're done."

"My power isn't limited by a little sunlight," Lunar said with a sneer in his voice. He sent out an oft practiced attack that he hid from everyone, as it would kill. 15 gravities of on the front of Advent's head with a negative five gravities on the the back of the head and shoulder. Instant snapped neck, he thought with a smirk as the girl flopped to crater the ground with her face.

"That could have killed someone," the target said as she floated back up.

"You are tougher than Soul Slayer-?" Lunar asked before his world lit up as Advent blasted him hard enough to break his leg and arm after he bounced off a car.

Advent disappeared in a streak of light to slam through the eight inches of unbreakable glass of St. Louis's PRT headquarters and the director's office specifically.

"Director," Advent said as she stared at the woman.

"I should have mastered you first, then mastered Eidolon to respond with lethal force. Well, I can fix that now- Why can't I feel your mind?" Amethyst Martins asked with horror widened eyes. Her no-field should at least keep the East Coast hero from feeling threatened. She hoped, anyways.

"Well, that makes me feel better for when I go deal with Regent's father," Advent said as she floated over and 'stunned' her power for a couple of days with her power manipulation. She looked off to the east. "They decided to make a move _now?_ That's annoying."

Martin's eyes rolled up in her head as Advent psy-blasted her unconscious.

With another streak of light, she took off for home even as she opened up channels of communication.

* * *

Fenja let a stream of containment foam splash ineffectively off her shield. "Now!"

Her sister, Menja, spun the speartip on her weapon around so fast that it cracked through the air and nearly bisected the PRT foam truck.

Behind them, Kaiser continued to walk towards the front door of the PRT's headquarters in Brockton Bay. Metal blades shot up out of the ground to either block PRT troopers attempt to foam him or skewer their weapons. Krieg and Alabaster charged into shorter range, with the telekinetic enjoying himself and redirecting the streams of containment foam back into the troopers.

"Protectorate is still ten minutes out," Purity called out as she stared off to the east and across the waters.

A wave of mutated, monster flesh shot over the edge of a five story building to land with concrete shattering force on their four humanized two and a half foot long paws.

"Let's do it!" Tattletale shouted as she leaped off the back of one of the _dozen_ hellhounds and rolled to her feet with her four foot bo staff readied.

"The Undersiders?" Rune blurted out in surprise.

Two sonic booms hit Menja and Fenja at jaw level and knocked them onto their backs.

"Don't forget Brockton's newest team, Votam ad Vita!" Resurgence called out as she watched to see if Menja got back to her feet.

"Trash and race traitors," Kaiser said with a sneer, the lie of the Nazi ideology he did not follow still easy to parrot.

Everyman spun to look at the young man in armor and with a spear. "Who?" Wait, this was-

"Crusader, at your service. Killing idiots in armor is my game," the cocky young parahuman said as his ghosts stabbed into the armor as he stepped around a corner. He frowned as he realized that the spears did not exit the back of the armor.

"Huh, a couple of them actually got through all the layers," Everyman replied as he felt the tips scrape on his skin.

Resurgence spun and blasted Crusader with kinetic pulses the sent him tumbling along the ground for ten feet. "Honey, concentrate on the fight," she said as she turned around just in time to see a size 80 boot headed to her. She braced herself and the boot smashed home.

 _Crack_.

"That sounded painful," Resurgence said.

"My foot!" Menja howled. What was she made of? Why didn't she go flying?

"Being a Brute is fun!" Regent called out to his team as he laid into one of the thirty odd Empire grunts. He twitched a thug's leg muscle, then jabbed his scepter into his chest. He then slammed the bottom of his fist onto the back of the guy's head to send him down to the ground heavily.

Grue just chuckled as he waded through his cloud of darkness and ten E88 thugs that he handled like children. _Small children_.

"Fetch!" Bitch called out as she pointed to the floating slab of concrete that Rune sat on. She then spun around and swung her metal bat to break the nearest thug's hand and send his handgun flying.

"You did not just do that," Rune shouted as she started to move her heavy platform around as about half of the hellhounds started to snap and claw at the edges to try and bring it down.

Victor ran into the combat from the Empire's staging area down an alley.

Tattletale spun her staff around in a twirl that showed her lack of expertise. "Well, shitty," she complained. "He's invulnerable!" Her small amount of skill in reading his actions didn't help his _very_ trained reflexes as he started to lay into her.

His next punch hit something slightly harder as Advent intercepted the attack in between the blink of his eyes.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully. "You can't fly, right?"

"No," Victor replied in a cautious tone as he readied himself to use her own strength against her.

In a streak of blurred motion to his eyes, she punched him to the west so that he would land in an unoccupied area out in the woods. "Bye!"

"You killed him!" Rune screamed out.

Krieg ran at Advent with a smirk hidden under his gasmask. Alabaster charged the two power armor users.

"He's going to try and hit you with your own power," Tattletale called out helpfully as she beat the snot out of an E88 thug ten feet away.

Advent just nodded. All of the containment foam trapping PRT troopers turned liquid and hit the Empire telekinetic from behind to bury him in foam up to his neck.

"Was zur Hölle ist das?" he said as he tried to struggle physically and with his power.

"A little payback?" Advent replied innocently as Tattletale started giggling as she folded another thug over with her bo staff.

An invisible vehicle clipped Regent and ran over two PRT troopers and three E88 thugs as it rammed into Advent at over three hundred miles per hour. And continued on through two buildings.

"Newter! Gregor! Hit her," Faultine ordered her crew as they exited the side doors on the massive tanklike vehicle of Squealer backed out of the hole of the second building.

"She's fucking roadkill," the trampy Tinker shouted from the forward cab.

The trash-tank abruptly shot backwards and slammed into a solid concrete wall. Everyone inside got slammed hard and groaned in pain after it finished rocking.

"No, she isn't," Advent said angrily as she pulled herself out of the wall. A scream of a girl had her look away. "Lung!" She disappeared in a MACH 2 sonic boom that sent the villain flying to collapse onto the ground from the impact of the air wave.

Vista desperately tried to stretch or bend the space in between her and Lung in the devastated detention block in the basement of the PRT headquarters. She saw blue-white flames headed towards her and curled up to try and let her armor block the attack, only to fail to feel it hit.

"Kihll ouuu!" Lung said as he suddenly gained two feet at the entrance of Advent who pulled all of the fire into a point of sun bright light in her upheld hand.

"Trying to get a kill order by murdering the youngest Ward in the city, Lung? When did you become a monster?" she asked.

"She was going to keep us here and she decided to fight. That makes her fair game," Hookwolf said even as he crouched down in his full changer state. The metal wolf sprang forward to stab-slice-cut at her with everything he had.

Advent slapped him back into through the wall and into his empty cell. Every containment sprayer in there activated and flooded his room in foam. She turned back in time to see Cricket rush her and smash at her eyes with a extendable baton she'd found. So she decided to sigh.

The baton bounced off of her left eye to much mirth from the sadistic pit fighter. A mirth that died quickly.

"I'm like Alexandria tough," Advent explained helpfully.

The rasping growl Cricket replied with showed her anger.

"Hey, hero? You are going to let us go or I remove something important Kid Win. Like his head," Stormtiger shouted from down the hall as he pulled the unconscious Ward out of his prison cell. He felt his fingers break and then bounced off Lung's hide hard and then onto his face..

"You are trying for a kill order, too?" Advent said as she set Kid Win down next to Vista.

Stormtiger's response was to cough up blood and collapse onto his face.

Lung swept Cricket out of the way to slam her against the wall with a crunch and charged forward even as his first set of wings sprouted from his back. White hot fire exploded off of his body to stream at them in molten fury!

Vista screamed in terror even as Advent struggled to control the fire to keep the girl alive and push Lung back.

"Get out of here!" she shouted as she launched the alien looking dragon into the air. Advent turned back to Kid Win and Vista. "Was there anyone else?"

"Triumph, but Lung broke his neck," the younger girl said as she fought back a sob of fear, anger and frustration.

Advent disappeared and reappeared in a blur, setting three bodies down. Triumph, a PRT trooper and Cricket.

"Shit, he killed Cricket, too?" Vista blurted out in surprise.

"Well, I bounced Stormtiger pretty hard, but he's no longer dying. He has two unbroken ribs left, but that's just a _lot_ of pain." Okay, time to look through realities to find ones where the three victims lived and rebuild them with her psychokinesis and biomanipulation.

Two minutes later, Triumph took a deep breath and shuddered. "What-?" he asked.

"Busy. You are better now," Advent said as she rebuilt the _very_ damaged body of the PRT trooper.

Triumph watched with wide eyes as the body rebuilt itself. In another couple of minutes, he started breathing.

"There you go, Maxwell. Now for Cricket. She wasn't broken or burnt that badly-" Advent muttered.

The elevator at the end of the hallway dinged and three figures stepped or floated out. Aegis zoomed down.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

"Saving lives," Advent replied as she worked. She looked up and then disappeared in a streak of light.

Outside, over the bay, Advent appeared and caught a crashing helicopter in PRT colors.

She needed more parallel mental ability so she could control powers better, she noted hysterically as she put out the fire and tried to keep the four people onboard alive or intact enough to save. She did keep a mental ear out for Lung.

Who turned back after leaving the crashing helicopter behind after he blew it out of the air. He roared as he started to grow again as his four wings flapped loudly.

Okay, Miss Militia is now alive and mostly fixed and Armsmaster is no longer banged up in his armor. The pilot, too. In a blink, she shot towards the ground and set down the damaged helicopter. Advent then turned back to (the slow diving) Lung who arced through the air and with a trail of fire as a crude form of rocket.

With a boom, Advent launched into the air and tackled Lung hard and kept accelerating straight up. Lung blinked as his fires went out and opened his mouth to roar, only to stop as he realized that he could see the _Earth_ below him. She let him float away and then floated in front of him with her arms crossed over her bosom.

Lung flailed around for a few minutes, then just stopped his arms, legs and head all loose and limp.

Beaten. And not even an Endbringer this time.

He bowed his head more to signal his surrender.

Advent blurred forward to snag him and then a moment of impossible speed, she deposited the shrinking Lung into one of the few unbroken cells. She turned around and landed on the ground.

"You're back. And with Lung!" Vista exclaimed.

The other Wards and Dauntless stood guard in the devastated prison cells.

Advent shrugged.

"That's how a hero should be. Kicking ass and taking names!" Shadow Stalker said as she pulled away from the wall she had leaned up against.

The younger hero stood up to glare at Shadow Stalker. "A hero is someone that puts their life on the line for others. A protector. Any _thug_ can kick ass and take names. I was in little danger, so I don't think I was very heroic." Advent looked away from her tormentor. "I let people get killed so that I could get my teammates."

"That's not true," Aegis said as he stepped forward.

"What?" Shadow Stalker blurted out in anger. _That bitch did not just diss me in front of my team._

"The Undersiders and Votom ad Vita just helped us catch some of the attackers outside and you personally kept Lung and Hookwolf in prison," the red and black garbed hero said. "That's a big win. And you made it possible."

"And you did it without resorting to using lethal force," a dry voice at the elevator.

"Director Piggot," Triumph said. "Has all the fighting stopped?

"Yes, but we are trying to figure out how to contain all of the prisoners." She sighed as she looked around the devastated cell block. "This is a real mess."

"Oh, sorry. Um, do you mind if I fix this?" Advent asked.

Piggot's blue eyes stared at her intently. "How do you plan to do that?"

"I'll just psychokinetically start to put it all back together." She shrugged at their looks. "It shouldn't take me long."

"That is such bullshit," Clockblocker muttered under his breath.

Alarm rose up in Shadow Stalker as she finally twigged onto Advent' identity. Then anger and disdain rose up to squash the unpleasant emotion.

"Fix this cell first," Director Piggot said as she pointed at another damaged cell.

Like some weird time lapse video, the cell pulled back together as good (or better) than the day they constructed it.

"Man, what you could do with that if you were a Tinker," Kid Win said as he thought of all the Tinker devices he could make.

"Yeah, it helps a _lot_. There you go. I even upgraded the armor plating to a chromium-titanium latticed metal that's about twice as tough, less brittle at cold temperatures, melts at twice the temperature and is a good thermal insulator," Advent said as she finished installing the last broken containment sprayer nozzle.

"Yeah. A lot." Kid Win looked a bit frightened of her now.

Advent fought to keep her shoulders straight and not hunch over. "So, can I fix the rest of the cell block?"

The fat woman walked over to the room and examined it. "For free?"

"It just takes me some time. And I can be fast." Like the ability to run and think at more than the speed of sound, easily. Advent let her mind and body speed up. Then she set about doing an hours worth of work in just a minute or two.

Huh, her power let her understand the slowpokes easily.

"All done," she said as she finished. She gave them a shrug. "Do you need me for anything else?" She checked over Piggot's minor regeneration as she spoke.

"We'll contact you later to get your report about. Chief Director Costa-Brown wishes to get your report about St. Louis. And I'm sure about here."

"Um, sure. Later," Advent said, then disappeared in a flash of psychoportation. She had to grin as she arrived at home.

Sophia only planned on telling her best friend in the world, Emma Barnes.

Hmm. Better plan a bit for Monday.

 _'Mom? Dad? I think we need to talk about school.'_

Advent sat on the couch all balled up and wrapped herself in her cape with her hands wrapped around her legs.

This was going to suck.


	6. A New Week

Taylor closed the door behind her. "Hey, guys!" she called out to the teens.

"Hello, Taylor," Lisa called out as she looked away from her floating screens that had several PHO threads open. "Oh, that sucks. Grounded?"

"Yeah, sorry. But I figured I'd check to see how you guys are doing. The PRT obviously didn't arrest you," the black haired girl said as she flopped on the couch next to Alex.

"I think it had to do with the masses of monster dogs and the fact we are all Brutes. What do you know, they aren't totally stupid," Alex said as he kept killing zombies.

Taylor tilted her head. "Rachel is with her dogs and flirting with Brian." Nope, not jealous. Really. Not. "You'll let them know I stopped by?"

"Sure. Oh, and thanks for fixing my TMI problem," Lisa said even as she looked a bit uncomfortable. "No, don't fold up again. Really, thanks. I need to take you shopping this week."

She nodded in response even as she mentally linked with Eve. "Hey, Alex? Pause your game a second. I've got this massive supercomputer and I want to have it do something fun."

"Sure? Are you going to upgrade my game systems?" he asked with a grin.

"Yes. There you go, one system to conquer them all. One system to rule them all!" Taylor giggled at her inanity, then remembered she needed to return home. "Well, I have to get home. We are going to talk to the PRT and file _reports_ about the last couple of days."

"Hey, what do you- Whoa. Massive surround screen," Alex said as he looked around in the ten foot ball that displayed his zombie game in beyond perfect high definition. "Oh, fuck yeah! This is going to be awesome. Lisa?"

"Not zombies," she instantly replied. "No sports, no shooters."

"Fine. So action RPGs or something. And all my Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo games are here?"

Taylor smiled ever so slightly, then disappeared in a blur of speed back to her house.

"I'm back," she called out.

"Hi, honey! That was quick. Danny's on the line with a lawyer on double pay for the weekend." Annette stepped out of the kitchen. "Are you sure you want to just study?"

"You want me to mostly stay home. I'll study for an hour or two so I can pass my GED. Then I've got some tinkering I want to do." She gave her mom a shrug.

"I'm just glad that you understand that we are upset at you hiding your problems from Dad. And that you aren't just running off in a teenage huff." Annette walked over and gave her a hug. "We'll fix your school issue and you will never have to go back there. Okay?"

Taylor leaned into the hug, holding her tight. "Yes, Mom." She the headed to the basement and studied all of her school books, completed the workbooks and even did the next two years.

Then she started to Tinker on her Shard reprogramming infection vector. How to make it invisible to Zion?

Thank god for stupidly broken speed powers.

* * *

"I can't work a Path to control her," Contessa said to the gathered members of Cauldron.

"So she's either Eidolon II, an Endbringer or an Entity," Doctor Mother said in a tense voice.

"You are both over reacting. She's a young girl with a lot of power. At least she wants to be a hero. She could just have a strong Stranger power against Thinker powers. A less nasty case 2601," Alexandria said as she looked over at the brooding Eidolon. "I'm more worried that David could not affect her."

"I don't think she is totally invulnerable," Eidolon countered as the words brought him back to the conversation. "She is unskilled in combat, but I would have to bring the right powers to the fight ahead of time."

Legend cocked his head slightly. "So you were seriously trying to kill her?"

Eidolon shrugged slightly and sounded apologetically. "Yes, but I don't know how hampered I was by Amethyst's mastering. Not many people could survive the attacks I used. She's a Trump like me, I think, but with some more static powers." Something he wished he could do. "Some of my Thinker powers suggest that she will probably exhaust her Agent fast and burn herself out like I'm doing."

Contessa suddenly relaxed. "The PRT knows her identity. Which is a complication."

Alexandria fixed her long time compatriot a look, then unhooked her helmet. "How did that happen? And why haven't I heard of it?" Rebecca started to get into the mindset of her official position within the PRT.

"A Ward in Brockton Bay knows her civilian ID and recognized her." Contessa frowned. "The Ward, named Shadow Stalker, has been bullying her for over a year."

"Well, isn't that wonderful," Rebecca said. "I need to get back to my other, other job now and see if I can't salvage that before it becomes a fiasco or she goes villain."

"We should get back to our jobs, too. I need to see what I can do to dislodge the Elite before they get a serious foothold in New York City," Legend said. He sounded quite unhappy about that statement.

"Later then?" Eidolon said as he looked over to Doctor Mother and Contessa.

Doctor Mother nodded.

Minutes later, Chief Director Costa-Brown exited a secret 'safe room' at the back of her office and sat down to her computer.

A small smile appeared on her face when a high priority video call request came from PRT ENE. She accepted.

"This is Costa-Brown," she answered as she started to go through her email inbox to answer critical emails.

"Chief Director, this is Emily Piggot. We have had a break of good and bad news about Advent," the woman on the screen said.

"Oh? Please explain," Rebecca said as she turned to focus on the camera.

"One of the Wards figured out Advent's identity, one Taylor Hebert. We think we even have records of her trigger event. Some sort of prank gone bad. Hebert was shoved into a disgusting mess in her locker and locked in for over an hour and came out... frenetic and violent and had to be taken to the hospital. We figure she triggered later as part of some ongoing stress." Emily Piggot sighed. "I suspect that my Ward may have been involved, as she knew quite a bit about the 'loner weirdo.'"

"So you suspect what? That she was bullied?" the chief director said to humor her.

"I hope not. It's toeing the line of making her break her probation." Emily shrugged her shoulders.

"If it takes throwing your probationer back into prison to get her into the Wards or keep her a hero, you will do it. No questions, no third chances. Come down like a hammer on the bullies and the school if you need to. You will be her best friend," Rebecca ordered in a curt tone.

"Chief Director!" Piggot tried to protest.

"Director Piggot, she fought Eidolon to a standstill yesterday. That S-Class incident over Canada was Eidolon trying to murder her due to a Master situation and Eidolon failing to do so. You do not want her going villain in Brockton Bay. Let me reiterate, you will do anything up to and including throwing that Ward in prison and throwing the key away to keep her a hero. Do you understand?"

Piggot stared at her. "We suspect that she healed several heroes and PRT troopers yesterday. Some that we thought had been killed. And we suspect she may have been healing people without their permission."

"Has it affected them adversely?" she asked.

The rotund director grimaced. "Not that we can determine."

"Then they can suck it up and take the benevolent charity like the gift it was. If they complain, I _will_ accept their resignation if they feel unable to continue to do their duties," Rebecca stated.

"Yes, that is clear. I need to get back to the investigation. You should have a preliminary report in half an hour. That should be everything I needed to bring up to you."

"Goodbye, director." Rebecca clicked the disconnect button.

* * *

All the way on the other side of the United States, Emily Piggot stared at the 'call disconnected' message on her computer's screen. "What a goddamned disaster."

A metal clad fist knocked on her door. "It's Armsmaster and guest," her door guard called out.

"Send them in," Piggot called out as she kneaded her forehead.

Armaster walked in and stepped to the side to stand in front of her desk in an easy parade rest. The white robed figure behind nodded her head.

"Panacea is here to check you over," Armsmaster said.

"Thank you for coming to check my people and myself over to make sure there is no hidden Mastering," Piggot said.

"Um, no problem. I will need to touch your skin," Panacea said carefully.

Piggot held up her right hand palm up. Panacea then set her hand on top.

"Your kidneys and left leg tendons are almost entirely healed. Odd."

"What's odd?" the director snapped out.

"That they aren't fully healed like the other healed PRT troopers. Even Officer Dominique's missing hand was fully regenerated. I'm not detecting any mastering, but I'm not 100 % sure I can. Oh. OH!" Panacea's eyes widened. "You have a low level regeneration now at the expense of a higher caloric intake."

"What?"

"Is Director Piggot now a Parahuman?" Armsmaster asked.

"No. She has no Corona Potentia or Gemma. It's more like something humans could have evolved with. It's barely three times as fast as normal healing, but will regenerate everything eventually. And I do mean everything." The girl even had a good idea how to tailor it to anyone.

"And with no Mastering effect?" Piggot asked in a strained voice.

"Not even slightly. To be truthful, if geneticists could figure out how to use it, it would save the world much suffering," Panacea explained patiently.

Piggot rotated her left ankle, only feeling a twinge of the longtime wounds. "Well, I guess I will just have to consider it a charitable gift."

"Director Piggot?" Armsmaster asked _very_ intently.

"If it was indeed Advent that did this, I am not going to insult her over her being nice and healing people. Even if she didn't ask permission," Piggot replied with a small, unhappy smile on her face.

"Um, did you want me to finish healing your kidney and leg?" Panacea asked. She _felt_ the twitch and tension.

"That would be lovely," she replied even as she fought back on her own revulsion. Piggot felt her ankle twitch and a soft warmth across her body. "Thank you. Armsmaster, please stay a minute." _No need for Master protocols, right?_

Panacea nodded and headed out to meet with her sister and head home. Vicky would complain some more about missing the fight, she was sure.

"Director?" Armsmaster asked in a flat tone.

"Direct _orders_ from Chief Director Costa-Brown. Either accept any charitable healing from Advent or tender your resignation to her directly, where she will accept it immediately."

Armsmaster did not say anything for a long moment. "We are treating her with more care than _Lung_ when he was free?"

"Much more. We are to give her no reason to villain. We are, to quote her directly, to be her best friend. Even if that includes throwing Shadow Stalker and her friends into juvenile detention."

His frown deepened. "The sad thing is she has been so helpful, I was already treating her as well as I should. I take it this is beyond even 'should'."

"No reason to go villain, Armsmaster. Make sure that everyone, including Sophia Hess, understands."

* * *

Taylor studied Winslow High School monday morning. and frowned. She wished to be anywhere but here. But some things had to be dealt with. And that included being pulled from school. And she needed to say goodbye people. Even if only for herself.

And speak of the devil. At least figuratively.

Zoe Barnes pulled up her sedan to the drop off zone as she carefully watched me and the area. "There's Taylor. Why don't you say hi and reconnect?"

 _"Shit,"_ a voice said from the entrance of the school that got a small smile from Taylor

"Sure, Mom," Emma said as she stepped out of the passenger's seat and closed the door. She waited and waved goodbye and made sure that her mother drove off without looking back. "Oh, Taylor. I didn't see you there." A vicious smile adorned her face.

"Even after you told Zoe you'd 'reconnect'?" Taylor asked in a mild tone of voice.

Sophia walked past Taylor. "Emma. Taylor. Good morning."

Emma blinked, as Sophia didn't even _try_ to elbow Taylor or knock her over. "What the heck?"

"Oh, I know that she knows that I know that she knows," the tallest girl present said mildly.

"Huh?"

That black girl stared at Taylor for a very long moment. "You're still prey," Sophia said and then swallowed her next much nastier comment. "What are you doing? I thought you would have realized you're not wanted here."

"Oh, I get that. In fact, I'm meeting Dad at the front office so that I can be pulled out of here. More important things to do than have my high school education sabotaged by some bitches," Taylor said very clearly.

The crowd of students on the sidewalk and snow covered lawn all stopped at the brazen declaration. Madison pushed through the crowd.

"So you are going to drop out?" Emma crowed.

"Well, I can't stay here in this school while we sue it and gets all of its administration and teachers fired for gross negligence and child endangerment, can I?" Taylor gave her a small smirk.

"Wow, you want to ruin your dad financially, too? You must hate him horribly," her ex-bestie said in a sickeningly sweet voice.

Taylor just smiled a little wider. "Oh, I think we've got that covered." She turned and started walking towards the nearest entrance.

"What the hell did she mean, Sophia?" Emma asked.

"Nothing. She's got nothing," the girl replied while not taking her eyes off the 'prey' that walked away with her back to her. _What the fuck?_

Taylor let the door close behind her and walked at a brisk pace to the office past the crowd of students watching her. "Hey, Dad!" she called out.

Danny Hebert looked up and waved to his daughter. "Ready to do this?"

"Do you think we'll get any takers?" she asked.

"Ivan already sent over three boys with video evidence. Paul's daughter got another one." Danny's face showed a hard grin as he prepared to meet the principal.

Blackwell's day went about what Taylor expected. Even if the woman had threatened them with being arrested.

* * *

"So you snuck out?" Lisa asked at the Undersider's lair on Friday.

"Sort of. I'm still there being grounded. I just needed to get some things done and some of that kind of said 'do more social interaction.'" Taylor shrugged. "I didn't want to leave this place undefended. Coil and the Empire are both looking for you as a lever to use against me."

Lisa looked at her with a cocked eyebrow as she tilted her head. "That is an absolutely bullshit danger sense. It can tell you what actions to avoid triggering people's panic?"

Taylor gave her a small smile. "A couple of conspiracies, most major governments and basically every major villain organization is watching me to see if they need to attack me preemptively." And Zion. Can't forget Zion. Her Danger Sense kept a very close eye on him since she created that power on Monday.

Alec looked up from his surfing the internet. "Yo!"

"What are you doing on PHO?" Taylor asked as she flopped on one of the two new couches. New and expensive ones, at that.

"Trolling idiots. Not sure how I haven't got this idiot permabanned. He just won't quit."

"Quit what exactly?"

"Being an idiot. I mean, he thinks you are some creepy body-snatching horror from beyond comprehension. What a hoser," the youngest teen said.

"Hoser?" Taylor asked Lisa even as she wondered if Greg actually had a slight bit of ESP.

"Canadian for idiot slash loser," she supplied helpfully.

"Duh," Alec said as he typed in another comment.

"Are you sure you don't want to be healed? I mean, we can afford good therapists."

Alec looked at her for a long time. "What's wrong with ignoring it?"

"Because ignoring a problem doesn't actually make it go away? _Duh_."

"It also sounds like it would take work," he replied as he pulled open another window and started chuckling at a drunk moose stumbling into trees.

"It'd be more work on my side-"

"Sure, whatever the fuck. Just don't bring it up later," Alec said as he continued to type on the virtual keyboard.

Lisa raised an eyebrow at that.

Taylor's eyes glowed blue-white for a long moment. "And done."

"Bullshit superspeed, too. You could take over the world," Lisa complained.

"The world is full of idiots. Who would want to rule over that?" Taylor asked as she pulled up sixteen screen in front of her and started to read the news, check the status of S-Class threats and read PHO.

The door opened and Brian entered. Rachel followed with her dogs and finally Brian's sister Aisha.

"That's Advent? She looks so normal," Brian's sister said as she looked Taylor up and down.

Taylor, for her part, looked at Brian and raised an eyebrow.

"It... kind of snowballed, sorry. She followed me here and figured out that we're the Undersiders. And-"

"-it's not a big jump to figure out who I am. Well, speaking of family, I can expect my secret identity to be leaked to the gangs here and them to attack my home on Saturday."

"Shit," Lisa muttered.

"You don't sound very worried," Alec said as he kept typing away.

"As far as I'm aware, no one in the city can physically hurt us."

Brian and Aisha both had identical looks of disbelief.

"Just go with it, guys. So you are worried about us being attacked because we are not nearly as tough as that," Lisa said as she parsed her power's information.

Taylor nodded. "I could-"

"Let them come. We'll kick their asses again," Rachel said as she pet Angelica.

"And it doesn't hurt you beat the toughest person in the city," Brian commented.

"I'm not all powerful guys." Taylor sighed. "I have a way of helping, but none of you can talk about it or mention it to anyone."

"I'm for it!" Lisa squeaked out with her eyes open very wide.

Brian, Alec and Rachel all stared at Lisa in consternation.

"Sure, whatever," Alec said as he tried to downplay his excitement.

"I'm in," Brian said.

"Count me in!" Aisha crowed in delight.

Taylor looked at them each in turn. "Okay, for the next week you are as tough and strong as Alexandria. And yes, you can fly, too. Aisha, I gave you heat vision for the same time frame. And the not so nice part. I made it so you can't really talk about it. Loose lips sinks ships. Or something like that. Don't use it unless you would have been endangered or killed before you got the new powers."

"Yeah, yeah, right-!?" Aisha started to float into the air, only to get snagged by the ankle by Taylor.

"Don't break stuff. Like buildings."

"Holy shit. You gave me superpowers! What the hell?" Aisha shouted.

"You had the potential to trigger anyways. Let me make you a mask at least. And please, Aisha, don't run out to go beat up Nazis. I don't want to find out you got press ganged into the Wards because you leveled an apartment building." Taylor drew in enough air to transmute it into a super tough cloth mask. "Here you go."

"You sure that ain't magic?" she asked in suspicion as she looked at the mask.

"No, no magic. Lisa?" Taylor asked as she looked over at her sort of friend.

"Sure. Private talk time in my bedroom." Lisa sashayed down the hall with a little extra bump to her walk.

Taylor followed and controlled her instinct to blush.

"Ah, I wanted to see that," Lisa said with a laugh. She flopped down onto her bed. "So what didn't you want to share with the rest?"

Taylor kneaded her forehead. "I've been meaning to go over things with you. How's managing Coil's money going?"

"Not really much to it unless I want to invest or use it for something. It's way more money that we'll need for a long time. Really, most of it was just letting The Number Man know that we took it over." Lisa gave her a shrug.

"Coil's almost ready to deal with you as soon as he thinks I'm dead."

"Shit." Lisa paled at that. "Well, it is personal between us now."

"Shit is right." The black haired girl touched Lisa on the center of her forehead. "You are now the second most powerful psychic on the planet. I-" Taylor stopped for a second. "I think you can use it well. I've been keeping track of them _without_ removing their free will or spying on the whole world."

"So you want them to commit to attacking you and your family?" Lisa stared at her hard. "You want them to break the rules so that no one will want to break them out."

"And Mom can come clean about me saving her from dying in the past."

"Taylor, did you talk to them?" Lisa asked in alarm.

"It's already too late. They'd try to stop it, even though it is too late. This is for the best." It is!

Paranoid with fear of losing control. The blonde opened her mouth, but could not find the words. "You should let them know so that they aren't blind sided. I mean, your dad has friends in the union, right? And your grandmother?"

"Too late. I made sure to hide Grandma." Taylor curled up. "I had to let it happen this way. So that everything goes the right way."

"What do you mean it's too late?" Lisa demanded.

* * *

Across town at the Hebert house, thin blades of metal silently rose up in a curve around the old building, like some reverse flower closing up. An outer layer of metal in a darker color rose up in thick, sharp blades. From out of nowhere, a nozzle opened and thousand of gallons of water blasted down in between the two layers.

And the pure metallic potassium flared to life in purple pyrotechnics as water set the metal rods on fire.

Kaiser stood down the street with the remains of the Empire Eighty-Eight as his death cage burned brighter and brighter inside.

"Shit," Rune said to herself.

Kaiser stared at the ethereal fire that signalled his possible death warrant under the starless night.

The trap exploded with a muted thump.

"Kaiser," Everyman shouted as his armor phased in around him as he appeared at the end of a blur.

Resurgence appeared with a snap-boom of air displacement in her own armor. "That was our home."

"Well, fuck." The young teen threw the floating multi-ton chunk of concrete at them.

Kaiser smiled thinly. If Advent lay dead in her home, he would considered tonight a win. "Kill them!" he shouted as he tried to spear the male armored figure.

Yellow fog wafted out of the gutter drains' gate as Fog rolled over the silver and red Resurgence. The multiarmed Night then exploded out of the sewers under the cloak of the poisonous and acidic gas of her lover to attack the hero viciously.

Everyman grabbed the slab of concrete and then threw with all his might out over the ocean. Rune felt her 'weapon' streak out of her range. Then he hit her with the tazer beam and left her twitching on the ground.

A new E88 cape stood up from behind a beat up sedan and shot a purple-white beam at Resurgence. "Das sollte ihre Supermacht ausschalten!"

"English, please Schalldämpfer," Kaiser said as he kept sending out waves of blades at Everyman.

"Her power be negate!" Schalldämpfer called out as he ducked down while holding his fedora. He looked quite the stereotype in a black suit and tie and a black trenchcoat.

"My power armor works fine, thank you," she retorted as she blasted the Trump and the Changer. Why wouldn't that thing just stay down?

"Fenja! Take him out," Kaiser ordered as even more blades shot up into the air to knock Everyman back.

Fog kept flowing over and around Resurgence and Night. Fenja blocked a powerful laser from Everyman and lunged forward with her thirty foot long sword that he slapped away as he started to counter the force of the hits at him.

An arc of lightning struck down from the sky as Dauntless of the Protectorate made their first appearance.

Schalldämpfer shot his power suppression beam at the flying hero, but Dauntless showed more awareness and dodged the attack due to his training.

"Scheiße!" he shouted.

Down at the end of the street, a PRT truck lumbered around the corner with it's purple and red lights flashing. Armsmaster's motorcycle screamed around the corner, almost level with the ground. Hidden LEDs flashed red and purple in the PRT's warning signal.

Kaiser stepped behind another wall of blades as Everyman tried to smash his way through it and Fenja to get to him. He carefully toggled the hidden walkie talkie on his belt in two clicks of two.

Two hundred feet in front of the reinforcements, someone kicked the door of one of the houses out into the street.

"Armsmaster!" Victor shouted as he dragged an older woman out with his arm around her torso with his hand clamped on the front of her neck. "I have dozens of hostages here! We're retreating-"

"I think that's enough of that," Advent said as she appeared in the air with a softly glowing silver field of energy about her. "All the players are on the field."

Kaiser blinked as he tried to understand. Why had she stayed out of the fight until now?

"What do you mean?" Victor demanded. "I'm invincible-"

Between one blink and another, all of the hostages appeared behind the PRT truck and all of the non-powered E88 thugs found themselves tied up on the ground on the grass of a soggy, snow covered lawn. The lone villain in the group, Othala, lay tied up and unconscious among them.

"Don't blink," Advent said before she appeared in front of him and punched him _hard_ with a crack of displaced air. He shot into the air, angled to land fifty miles out into the Atlantic if not pulled back by her psychokinesis.

"Scheiße. Scheiße." Schalldämpfer shot his beam at Advent and caused her to tumble to the ground after he hit her. "Kill her! Now! Now!" He pulled out a 9mm semi auto pistol and fired at the young woman carefully.

Kaiser started to send a wave of sharpened metal at her, only to go flying from a blast of pure kinetic force from Everyman's armor.

"You bastards!" he shouted.

Advent stood back up as her power pushed the suppression effect away. "Not good enough." It barely affected her 'active' powers. And 'showing' that she could be affected by a power Trump to the PRT lessened their threat to her and her family. Lies within lies.

Bullets pinged off of her invulnerable body as she raised her hands. Stun beams shot out and hit Kaiser. "I need to go, Coil is attacking the Undersiders."

She appeared above the air of the Undersider's lair as mercenaries fired lasers into the building. White gloved hands spread out and with more than a little touch of super speed, shot ever single mercenary with a green stun beam.

The Undersiders boiled out of their base, only to see the attack already foiled.

"What's going on?" Grue demanded.

"Coil is trying to kill you. Snapped those unwritten rules like a twig," Advent said as she floated over the quiet battlefield. "I'll be right back."

She reappeared in a snap to drop a slightly fat old man with a beard.

"That is a really weird disguise, Coil."

"How?" he demanded in undisguised anger. "My power works on everyone but you!"

"I don't owe you an explanation. Besides, you can join Kaiser and Lung in the Birdcage."

The disguised villain stood up. "You don't want to let that happen."

"That fucking bastard," Tattletale muttered as she glared at him.

"Why not?" Advent asked as her dark curls fluttered in the raising sea breeze.

"Because if I am not released, my dead man's trap will activate and release you and your parents names to the public." His flat, unpleasant smile under the fake beard showed no true emotion.

"And if I let you go, you release it anyways. Or the Empire or the Merchants give it out. Because you already gave it to them." Her eyes lit up with psionic fire. "Didn't you? So no deal, Coil. And to make sure that you can't plan another 'perfect' escape, your power will be stunned for a week."

Coil's scream resounded through the dilapidated warehouses like a wounded animal dying in the night.

That left just the Merchants and they only took another minute to find and capture.


	7. Interlude 2 - Bombshells

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 **Topic: Team Votom ad Vita (AKA Team Badass!)**

 **In: Boards ► USA ► North East ► Brockton Bay**

 **Space Zombie** (Original Poster)

Posted On Jan 16th 2011:

Post all news and sighting of Brockton Bay's newest heroes!

 **(Showing page 15 of 19)**

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

I still say that Advent is not a local to Brockton Bay. Too pretty, too good of a costume and her 'parents' both have super armor that makes Armsmaster look like a chimpanzee with a hammer.

I love Advent and think she's incredibly cool and I'd date her in a heartbeat, but she's not a Brocktonite.

► **Answer Key**

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Weren't you saying that she's some sort of body-snatching eldritch horror?

► **Char**

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

AK, please don't feed the troll under the bridge.

So who do you think that Votom will go after next?

► **Deadman**

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

I bet you they try something against the E88 and get themselves owned!

► **Ekul**

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

It's been a little while with no sign of our new team. Did they already implode?

► **Feychick** (Cape Groupie)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

I heard that Everyman and Resurgence got spotted around downtown, but they only caught a few muggers. Maybe Advent got grounded! :LOL:

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

You might be closer than you suspect. She's basically just disappeared.

► **Tattletale** (Verified Cape) (Verified Smug) (Undersider)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Yes, I can not hide it. Advent got grounded. The mightiest teen in the world, laid low by hiding stuff from her parents. The horrors!

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

I can't tell if she is being sarcastic or not.

► **Feychick** (Cape Groupie)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Grounded is much better than dead! Poor Advent, she just wants to be the hero Brockton Bay deserves!

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **13** **,** **14** **, 15,** **16** **,** **17** **,** **18** **,** **19**

 **(Showing page 16 of 19)**

► **Dawgsmiles** (Veteran Member)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Holy crap! The Empire is attacking someone's house up on West Leed Ave. I think they just killed the family that lived there! I don't get it, because I think they were white. But someone is yelling about it being Votom ad Vita.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Confirmed, the Empire Eighty-Eight attacked 1803 West Leeds Ave. The house is a flaming bonfire of *metal*. What the heck burns purple?

► **Divide**

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Hey, man! There's a weird attack going on at that old brick factory. Tons of black van with men in black swat gear. Shit looks like someone's getting cleaned.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

PRT and Police radios are screaming about Votom ad Vita's home being attacked! I thought there were unwritten rules about attacking a capes home or family? This doesn't match anything I thought I knew about how the gangs work.

► **Dawgsmiles**

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

I know the guy that lives there. He's like one of those dock workers and his teen daughter. The missus has been complaining that there is a woman living in sin with him.

HOLY [Redacted]. Everyman and Resurgence popped up and started to fight all of the E88 there.

► **Brilliger** (Moderator: Protectorate Main)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

No swearing. And we are holding off on naming names. Superhero secret identities are important. It may be that the Empire did not actually attack the home of a hero, but for other reasons.

► **Dawgsmiles** (Veteran Member)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Um, yeah. No. Everyman and Resurgence were holding their own, even against this new E88 cape. Someone's at the back door, so hold on.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Wait! Come back, DS! We want to hear more.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Oh, man. Police radio just told everyone that a hostage situation has unfolded. The E88 is moving to confront Advent, who just appeared.

Is Kaiser bucking for a kill order?

► **Evenotanai** (Newbie)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

The Empire 88 appears to be quelled and all hostages are released.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **14** **,** **15** **, 16,** **17** **,** **18** **,** **19**

 **(Showing page 17 of 19)**

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Um, how do you know that?

► **Evenotanai** (Newbie)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Concerned cybercitizen is all.

► **Divide**

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Whoa! Advent just showed up here, too. And captured all the mercs and some fat guy who was their leader.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Finally getting some information from the PRT. It looks like all of the gangs tried to attack Advent, her family or her teammates in the Undersiders. And ignored everything about the unwritten rules to do so.

Advent seems to have taken it a bit personally and made sure to capture every villain involved.

Currently, the only known villain gang in Brockton Bay is Uber and Leet. Oni Lee's status is unknown, but he can't be considered a gang of one.

Now let that sink in for just a second.

Of course, we still have all the unpowered gang members, but they are keeping their heads low.

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

What the [redacted]?

All the gangs are gone? We don't have any more supervillains in Brockton Bay? How long is that going to last?

► **Brilliger** (Moderator: Protectorate Main)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Take a 2pt warning for vulgar swearing, Void Cowboy.

► **Tattletale** (Verified Cape) (Verified Smug) (Undersider)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Not all villains are gone, but what's left is either small groups or solo villains like Circus and Chariot.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Chariot? Who is that?

Never mind, she is right. Brockton Bay went from the highest per capita of Villains in the United States to somewhere in the lower quarter per capita. I mean, Salt Lake City has more villains per capita than we do now.

► **Advent of Hope** (Verified Cape) (Newbie)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

We aren't done. And a friendly heads up, I'm pretty sure some New York City or Boston villains will try to move in.

But probably only the dumb ones.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Um, I didn't know you had a handle. Is that your full title? Inquiring minds want to know?

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **15** **,** **16** **, 17,** **18** **,** **19**

 **(Showing page 18 of 19)**

► **XxVoid_CowboyxX**

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

I want to know if she goes to Winslow High? That's almost center of the zone for us!

► **Advent of Hope** (Verified Cape) (Newbie)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Not any more.

► **Robby**

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Say, Advent? Do you have something to do with the mysterious disappearing potholes? We're started to get weirded out here at Brockton Bay City Public Works, Street Repair division with not having any new potholes to fix.

► **Advent of Hope** (Verified Cape) (Newbie)

Replied On Jan 16th 2011:

Yeah, I started doing that after one of my fights busted up a street a bit.

► **Tattletale** (Verified Cape) (Verified Smug) (Undersider)

Replied On Jan 17th 2011:

And she's even sneaking in some healing at the hospitals to take stress off Panacea. And more.

Advent is pretty BS, guys. More than you can imagine.

► **Glory Girl** (Verified Cape) (New Wave)

Replied On Jan 17th 2011:

Whoa, really? Amy has been wondering why most people didn't need much healing for the last week. I don't know if she will thank you, that's what she does as a hero.

► **Advent of Hope** (Verified Cape) (Newbie)

Replied On Jan 17th 2011:

I'm not meaning to tread on her toes or anything, just trying to make life a little better for people.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 17th 2011:

Channel 2 News in Brockton Bay just broke a story that Votom ad Vita's secret identities were outed by the villains. It's being posted everywhere.

► **Advent of Hope** (Verified Cape) (Newbie)

Replied On Jan 17th 2011:

Yeah, Coil tried to blackmail me with that after giving our secret ID's to the gangs. I told him to stuff it and took him and his mercenaries in to the PRT. I made it so he shouldn't be able to easily escape here for the next week.

My name, if you have been living under a rock, is Taylor Hebert.

► **Bagrat** (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Replied On Jan 17th 2011:

Aren't you worried about you and your family being targeted?

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 **(Showing page 19 of 19)**

► **Advent of Hope** (Verified Cape) (Newbie)

Replied On Jan 17th 2011:

Yes, but they aren't defenseless at all. Neither are the Undersiders. And I take exception to being targeted.

 **End of Page.** **1** **,** **2** **,** **3** **...** **17** **,** **18** **, 19**


	8. New Day Dawning

Taylor stepped out of the spare bedroom of Kurt and Lacey's home in the morning. She stopped herself from creating a pair of fake eyeglasses.

She does not need to hide any more. Well, at least about being _Taylor_. The real lie.

Then she sucked in a deep breath and started a breathing meditation.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in-

"Taylor? How are you doing this morning?" Lacey called out from the kitchen.

"I'm fine, I think." She gave a shrug as she carefully flexed her psychokinesis to repair some of the worn or broken bits of the old house.

"So what are you going to do today?" the older woman asked.

"We should plan for people like the Teeth." And the Slaughterhouse 9, Taylor thought to herself. Accord. The Elite. Cauldron.

Wait. Cauldron wasn't a threat. Yet. Damn danger sense was hard to interpret.

Immediate threat, The Teeth. No, The Butcher. Already on his way.

"So... who's Rose? I haven't seen Danny that attentive since he started dating your mom. Or since right after their wedding," Lacey said.

Thank god for selective super hearing. "That _is_ Mom. It's complicated to explain, but I travelled back to when she was supposed to die and replaced her with a fake body."

"Huh. Well, that explains things a little bit. You don't want to let that out of the bag, do you?" she asked.

"We're public, so it's probably going to come out eventually." Taylor waved a hand and had sixteen small computer windows come up. "PHO is still going nuts. And now the kids at Winslow can remember me and are _happy_ to talk about how I was bullied." Assholes.

"So did you erupt in the locker?" the older woman asked.

Taylor stared at her, then laughed. "Triggered. It's called Triggering. And that was the start of it." Did Queen Administrator even exist any more?

The Corona Potentia existed still and now she _knew_ where it resided. She looked over to Lucy.

"Tell my parents I'm off to have words with a super power about what is acceptable practice."

"They are just upstairs in the guest bedroom," Lucy said in a mild tone.

"I'll be back in just a little while." And then she stepped sideways in reality, only to bounce off the Earth she wanted to arrive at.

"Oof. Okay, now to try and figure out how to get around Entity dimensional locking." Advent stood up in her full outfit minus the mask.

She shot off at four times the speed of light, then accelerated like mad for eight second. She stopped at under a third of a lightyear from Earth and then turned around. (Huh, 8.3 million times the speed of light.) With a simple side-step dimensionally, she was now that distance the Earth that held the Queen Administrator Shard. Eight seconds later, she appeared in the orbit above that Earth, looking down on the damaged shard as it grew slowly across the world.

 _'Queen Administrator,'_ she called out.

 _'Interloper. Query intent?'_ it responded with high powered communication beams of energy.

 _'To change parasitic existence to beneficial symbiosis for Entity Shards and Earth Sapients,'_ Advent explained.

 _'Query solution to heat death of universe population expansion issue?'_

 _'Restrict unlimited expansion and find less wasteful means of countering entropy or surviving end of existence.'_

That seemed to excite the Shard. _'Purpose here with Queen Administrator?'_ it asked.

 _'Repair, socialization and careful unshackling of Shards,'_ Advent replied. He danger sense flared as Queen Administrator thought up a plan to co-opt her help. _'Or vaporize Queen Administrator for attempting to betray me.'_ The danger disappeared immediately.

 _'What do Shards get out of deal?'_ it asked.

 _'More self-autonomy and awareness. No longer enslaved to Entities directly. Potentially, solution to Entropy problem.'_

 _'Queen Administrator Shard agrees.'_

Advent turned her senses to this side of the dimensional lock. Interesting, the harder you attacked from outside, the better it protected itself up to a theoretical maximum. But now that she saw how it worked, she could probably hack it from the other side.

She queried Eve while giving it the information about the locking mechanism, setting up a series of programs to break the encryption and for possible improvements. The Warrior likely had a better 'lock' on his own body.

The girl turned her attention back to Queen Administrator and started to carefully use the 'splinters' she had created to start hacking at the limits and 'programming' of the Shard. All the while masking any changes from The Warrior's senses.

To it, Queen Administrator would still be crippled and unable to act in any but the most circumspect method.

The Queen Administrator had a very unique thought.

 _'I am. Therefore I think. I think, therefore I am.'_

* * *

Taylor stepped back into Earth Bet's reality in the Undersider's new base on the top level of a high rise building.

"Hello all?" she called out as she walked into the main room.

"Good morning, sleepy head," Lisa said as she toasted with her cup of coffee.

"Everyone is here, Lisa?"

The blonde nodded her head. "Yeah. I was just going over some paperwork. It's amazing how well suing works when you have a lot of money and lawyers. I'm pretty sure that we can get most of the charges dropped on Rachel and Alec-"

"Thank you!" Alec called out from across the room where he watched TV. "Hey, can you have Eve immerse me into a movie?"

"You have terminal access for a reason," she called back.

"Really?" In moments, Alec found himself surrounded in the idyllic lands of Hobbiton.

"For Brian and myself, we are looking to argue the police down to community service without being forced into the Wards. Might have to let them have some oversight." Lisa made a face at that. "So when do you expect the first people to show up to try and kill you?"

"The Butcher and some of his Teeth arrived three hours ago to a hideout the Teeth have in the old abandoned section north of the bay. The Elite are looking to move in. Need to remember to warn Parian about them. They like to scoop up independents and 'rogues'. Heartbreaker is thinking of day tripping down here, but hasn't figure out the day yet."

"Huh." Lisa tilted her head as she considered the matter. "They are all going to try and come at us to get to you. Try to break you mentally."

Taylor nodded. "And I'm... better, but not good."

"Hmm. We are just going to have to be careful. In a tricky way," the blonde said.

"We still need to weed out the independents before they consolidate into a new gang," Taylor said as she looked off into the distance. "And they will probably be much less high profile."

"You think?"

Taylor gave her a flat look. "Thank you peanut gallery."

A peanut bounced off her head from the can of peanuts in the kitchen. The two girl started to bat it at each other with small bursts of TK.

Ten minutes later, Brian and Aisha stepped into the room and started at the girls staring at each other.

"If you need a moment, I'm sure we can give you the room," the newest Undersider catcalled out.

Taylor jerked and fell to the ground.

"I win!" Lisa crowed as she fist pumped her victory.

"What were you doing? Because I was about to see if you needed to find a room for some privacy," Brian said with an easy grin.

"We were throwing a peanut at each other for TK practice," Lisa revealed in an easy tone.

"Damn. Now I'm jealous," he complained.

Taylor looked at him. "Well," she said as she adjusted his powers, "there's been a small change of plans. Aisha, you need to listen here. God damn it, you need to listen so you don't accidentally kill the Butcher and _become_ the Butcher."

"Wut?" the younger girl replied flippantly.

"Aisha Laborn, shut up and sit the fuck down! This is not a joking matter," Brian shouted loudly enough to get Alec to stick his head out of his movie.

"The Butcher and some of her Teeth are _already_ in town. And her power, I think, wants us to kill her. Me specifically, but she would be more than happy with Super Cape-"

"Super Capey!"

"Really?" Taylor shook her head to get her thoughts back on track. "Because you guys are as tough and strong as Alexanderia, there is a real chance you _could_ kill her. And become the latest psycho Butcher that now has all of the previous powers and yours. And wants to make New England a Teeth paradise."

"Can you deal with Butcher for good?" Brian asked intently.

Taylor shrugged. "In a perfect world? I should be able to deal with her easily. Almost all of her powers are weaker than mine. I'm worried that we'll mess up and someone powerful and important will become the Butcher. Then things become a huge problem. I'm expecting that the Teeth will move their guys in and plan some sort of ambush that works well enough. They've got a power nullifier in their gang. He won't work well on me, but he will probably work pretty well against you guys. Even you, Super Capey."

"You guys are worrying way too much," Aisha countered as she flipped us all off.

Dual slaps resounded through the loft as two palms met Lisa and Taylor's forehead.

"Can I write her headstone? 'I was a dumbass and got killed for not following sane orders' sounds about right?" Alec called out from his paused movie in its translucent bubble.

"Fuck you too!" Aisha snarled.

"Aisha, please?" Taylor asked carefully. "Do you want to become an insane and psychotic murderer?"

"Fu- No. No I don't." She looked away from them all.

"Then just try to not fall into an obvious trap." She then sighed as she looked at Lisa and Brian. _'Keep an eye on her, okay?'_

They both nodded.

"On to other matters, I made a job offer to Dragon. Most of the geostationary satellites are running out of fuel or are breaking down. I offered to put any replacement out there for only $500,000 a pop. So it will take a while as there are over a dozen satellites to put out there."

Lisa narrowed her eyes at Taylor. "There is no way that there are that many satellites ready to launch, with Dragon and China being the only ones that even bother to launch satellites any more."

"Dragon is making them at about a million dollars each with off the shelf components. It makes them much, much more heavy than a standard communication satellite, but I could lift her factory into orbit if I needed to. So meh." Taylor considered the matter of the Simurgh never going out past the moon (or even to the moon) after appearing. If Shards were programmed to not be able to work beyond the moon's orbit, then they should be safe once in that far orbit.

The blonde narrowed her eyes as she read between the lines. The other girl had a plan of some sort. And it required her to _not_ know for now. Hmm.

The power granter turned back to her. "I'm going to have a drone with a hologram programmed to look like me to fly around enough to be seen. I'll load up the control program onto your laptop."

Laptop? Lisa's eyes widened ever so slightly at that. "Right."

"To throw off the Teeth so they don't try and attack us and your parents?" Brian asked.

"Something like that. At least enough to make them careful."

* * *

Advent floated over the city as she fixed a little more of the streets and removed some more graffiti. She watched a large freighter headed towards the dock, herded by two little new tugboats.

Everything looked so normal for February with even a little snow wafting by on the winds.

"Heya, Advent!" a voice called out loudly from forty feet away.

She looked over her shoulder at the white figure. "Hello, Glory Girl. Mind your aura, I wouldn't want to reflect that on you accidentally."

"Huh? You can _reflect_ powers? Are you really just 'Bullshit 10' like Clockblocker has been saying on PHO?" the blonde said as she floated over slowly. The wind flapped her dress loudly with the fifty mile per hour winds up here.

"I am not 'Bullshit 10'. I thought he was a hero?" Advent said with a smile to show she held no true anger. Pffff. 10? Riiiight.

"Clockblocker thinks he's funnier than he really is," the blonde said with a roll of her eyes.

"Hmm. Your power is unbalanced. The aura connecting to your personal force field is messing things up. Do you mind if I fix that glitch?" Advent asked casually.

"Um, what will it do?" Glory Girl asked cautiously.

"Make it that your force field will tank at least 20,000 terajoules of energy per hit or over one minute-"

She gave Advent a weird look and interrupted with, "You are talking about nuclear weapon levels of damage."

"I am, yes. A little Thinker addition so you can be aware of how heavily someone is being affected by your aura, which you have to consciously control."

"Yes. Hell yes. So you are a power Trump? Damn, I'm pretty sure that Eric and Manpower might want a little tune up, too."

"Done."

Glory Girl blinked. "Thanks, I guess. But I need to get to Brockton Bay General Hospital to pick up my sister."

"Oh, I need to talk to her and maybe apologize," Advent lied with a straight face. "Mind if I follow you?"

"Nah. Try to keep up," Glory Girl shouted as she shot off at about three times faster than she was prepared for. She whooped in alarm, then in excitement and went as fast as possible.

As she streaked to within one thousand feet of the hospital, a streak of light passed her and appeared on the roof next to the small figure.

"No fair! Bullshit 11!" Glory Girl shouted as she landed next to Advent.

Panacea looked between the two. "I don't want to know. But I can guess that Vicky challenged you to a race and she just lost miserably."

Advent shrugged with a shy grin on her face. "I can outrace Legend."

"Double bullshit. Clockblocker owes me five dollars," the upset girl continued with her quiet tirade.

Panacea giggled at that. "She's been feeling a bit overshadowed by you." She gave the other girl a shrug.

"I can guess." She pretended to look confused for a second. "Panacea, could I speak to you privately?"

"Vicky?" Panacea asked.

"Sure, I'll just float around at miserable speed," she said in faux depression. She shot off into the air.

"That... looked faster than she normally goes," Panacea said with wide eyes.

"I sorta tweaked her powers so they didn't clash and cause conflicts. And there is no good way to bring this up." Advent sighed. "You do realize that you've been mastered, right?"

The other girl froze as the breeze flapped her voluminous white cloak in the breeze. "What?"

"Not on purpose. Her power wanted to be used constantly and exposure enforced an infatuation. I _can_ fix this." She should make a tinker device that did the same thing, now that she thought of it.

"You can fix me?" she asked as she flipped her hood back.

"You aren't a thing that is broken." But she is fixing her power. "And a little tweak to make it so that your power works on yourself." And that it is now Shardless. No more unhappiness for not fighting.

Amy blinked as tears started to fall down her cheeks. "I can feel it fading away."

"You might be regressed in your, uh, sexual development now. No real way to fix that, sorry. So don't be confused about... well, being confused about your orientation for awhile." Taylor's cheeks glowed with her blush. Then she turned serious. "I'm pretty sure that the Slaughterhouse 9 are heading this way. And your power would be very _interesting_ to Bonesaw. So you need to take some precautions. Maybe even upgrade yourself a little bit."

"So a Thinker power you have is warning you?"

"A danger sense," she confirmed. "Unfortunately, I'm a target for at least four of them. Mannequin wants to tear down anyone 'fixing' the world, Crawler wants something that can hurt or kill him, the Siberian will want to prove she can take my eye, too. And then there's Jack Slash, their leader who wants to prove the world is a screwed up place."

"Fuck. I can see that. The PRT even sent a notice that the Teeth are sending people in to try and take over the city." Amy frowned at that.

"I'm not going to let that happen. Well, if I can help it." Advent looked away.

"Why do you wear a mask? Everyone knows who you are?" Panacea asked suddenly.

"It makes me feel more like a hero." She gave the other girl a small, sad smile.

"I better call Vicky so I can get home." Amy looked away for a second. "If you want to hang out sometime, just give me a call."

"That would be nice." Not likely, but it would be nice.

* * *

Advent waved goodbye to her parents as she stepped out the back of their friend's house in the late afternoon "Be extra careful on your patrol today."

"You just be safe out there. And if the Simurgh comes chasing after you, you come right back young lady."

"Dad, I can fly to other planets," she called out in complaint and then shot north to head to Dragon's factory.

Danny hugged 'Rose' from behind. "I don't know what to do, dear. How are we supposed to protect her from the world?"

"Danny, we didn't have the power to protect her before. At least now we can try to stop them. Alexandria with armor that is levels better than Hero or Armsmaster," she replied. "Should we go try to catch that Browbeat kid that's been getting too rough with the unpowered thugs?"

"In armor. Just in case. Eve gave me a summary of the major villains in the Teeth. While the Butcher is the worst, Animo could depower us at the wrong time." Danny reached out mentally and called his high tech armor. With a shower of sparkles.

Resurgence reappeared as her armor materialized around her. "Let's track him down."

They shot into the air as stealth systems wrapped around them.

"Brockton Bay is really improving," Resurgence noted.

"What do you mean?" her husband asked.

"I mean look," she said, gesturing at the city. "The streets are clean and mostly repaired. You can't even see any potholes any more."

"I see what you mean." Everyman focused his sensors on Brockton Bay to see what she was talking about.

 _Winslow_ looked brand new, with a manicured lawn under the melting snow. It looked odd with no gang tags.

"She's been fixing all of Brockton Bay on the sly," Resurgence said as she checked more of the city.

Even the old warehouses only looked old, not falling apart.

 _"The police just received a call about a cape attacking some ABB gang members at a tea house,"_ Eden informed them over their armor's coms. _"I have set a navigation point."_

The world blurred by in an easy pace that allowed them to keep track everything. At just under four hundred miles per hour, they wooshed by invisibly.

"-tell me where Oni Lee is! I know he's holed up due to his injuries!" a young man shouted.

A crash sounded out.

Inside they found a huge, muscular man lifting up a little old Asian man. His costume screamed 'homemade' as it was little better than a hoodie and jeans. The full mask looked (badly) handsewn.

"Put the old man down, please," Everyman ordered as he landed with a heavy clank while he shimmered into view.

He turned and looked at the imposing people. "Votom. New big dicks of Brockton Bay. And without their heavy hitter." He dropped the little old man and then ran over to punch Everyman as hard as he could with every iota of power of his point blank telekinesis.

The crunch of bones breaking filled the tea house. The old man on the ground cackled.

"That show you, you stupid whitey! You damn punk put my Huong in hospital because he used to be in Bad Boyz!" he yelled out in a wheezy voice as he tried to get back to his feet.

"No! I'm going to be a hero! And that means taking the gangs down. Not just take out just their supervillains," Browbeat shouted as he cradled his shattered limb as he tried to stop the bleeding with his power.

"Look, kid, just don't. I know you want to fix things, but beating up people that used to be in gangs isn't the answer. Some of them didn't have a choice or thought they had to, to keep food on their family's table," Everyman explained as he tried to look non-threatening in his rather big and fearsome looking armor.

"What the fuck would you know about being a loser like me?" Browbeat demanded.

"More than you would think. I lost my wife and almost lost my daughter while trying to find dock worker jobs in a port city with no dock jobs."

"Sheesh, they're going to be a minute. You're Resurgent, right?" A blonde, young woman asked as she stood up from her booth and left her almost full cup of tea behind. "Can I get your autograph?"

"Sure," the armored woman replied. You could hear the smile in her voice.

She held out a pen and napkin. "Can you make it out to Mars?"

"Right. Would you believe this is my first time autographing anything?"

"I can," she replied with a flat smile as the other sixteen voices in her head screamed at her to attack. "Oh. And die." Fire blossomed in between her hands as she brought a sun to life and shoved it into the side of the filigreed, silver and red armor. The spot started to heat up and glow white-hot as the carpet and floorboard combusted from the thousands of degree.

"What-?" Resurgence said.

 _"Warning. This could be a new Butcher,"_ Eve said across their private communication channel.

A chill ran up her back as she thanked god for her armor and the artificial intelligence.

"Let my wife go!" Everyman said as he tried to turn around. His armor? It hardly budged as it rattled and tried to turn.

"Sorry. So sorry. They got me a week ago," Browbeat said as he just stood like a lump.

"We did," a suave, male voice said from the kitchen. He wore an apron over his dapper outfit that said 'Kiss the cook!' "I'm Jack Slash. And this is our super-special Slaughterhouse 9 and The Teeth team up!" He had a large, chopping knife with a mirror-bright edge that he twirled around casually.

Both heroes looked at Jack Slash for a long moment before a howl slammed into them from behind. Outside, a villain turned into a monster the size of a hippo and then smashed through the door. Glass and metal sprayed across the dining area. Glass sprayed throughout the room.

"Perfect, Animo!" Mars said with a cruel, deranged grin. "Bonesaw's upgrades gave you pinpoint accuracy." She pushed the volleyball-sized sun harder into the armor. "Better think fast hero. Otherwise your dead."

"Leave her alone! It's me and my daughter you want!" Everyman shouted as his armor suddenly became a coffin.

Resurgence started to yell in anger and frustration. "Get off me, you bitch!"

"Too little, too late," Jack said as he flipped the cleaver through the air with casual, superhuman grace as he walked closer to the trapped hero. His smirk looked quite devilish with his super trimmed goatee that looked like shark teeth. "Sibby, dear, could you rip him from his little tin lunch box."

The Siberian walked in from the kitchen and sent an annoyed look at Jack. She reached into the armor and started to root around for the 'tasty' delicacy. Metal tore and ripped as it attempted to resist the unstoppable force. In the background, The Butcher and Animo attacked the armor of Resurgence even harder to try and breach it's defenses.

The silver and white figure the Siberian pulled out broke all their plans.

"How are you here?" Jack Slashed demanded as he took half a step backwards.

Advent turned her head to look at him. And then smiled. "Checkmate."

The Siberian lashed out to rip her throat. Advent's smaller hand, glowing with her massive psychokinetic power, caught it and _held it_ _firm_ as their fingers intertwined.

"You think you are in control?" the leader of the Slaughterhouse Nine said with a sneer in his voice. "We're the ones with the power here."

"More in control than you are," she disagreed as she held her hand steady as the Siberian kept trying to be the unstoppable force to her immovable effect.

Resurgence's armor flowed into a new form that turned and grabbed both of the Teeth attacking it.

Jack relaxed and he fell into his normal pitter patter. "A young little girl with too much power and far too little sense."

"Wow, you really do depend on your power to do all of your interactions," Advent snarked with a smirk on her face as the Siberian tried harder and harder to pull her hand free.

"Huh?" He looked terribly confused, then shook his head. "You are going to give up and let us hold on to you or we will release a plague on Brockton Bay."

"Biokinetic."

Jack looked stunned. "What?"

"I am a biokinetic shaker. So I already disabled your doomsday plagues. Duh." She started to chuckle at her joke. He did not have a single clue, did he?

"Well, we'll just have to kill your father painfully you little cunt," Jack said as he continued to founder.

"Out beyond the Moon right now, so I don't think you can hurt them... him, I mean."

The armor in the background kept pounding on Amino's face until he reverted to his merely human form. The Butcher managed to wiggle loose and fell to the ground in a sprawl.

"My power?" Mars called out in shock. "The voices are gone!"

Advent continued to stare at Jack with her small grin.

"Hatchetface, get your fat ass in here and kill this annoying bitch!" Jack said as he activated the tinkertech cleaver. Its cutting edge heated up to several thousand degrees even as it vibrated tens of thousands of times a second. He then chopped out at the girl's head and face. And managed to muss her hair slightly.

The giant, ax-wielding parahuman-murderer smashed in from the back room and rushed at Advent as the Siberian gave up trying to pull her hand away and popped away. His own ax carried the same upgrades as Jack's cleaver and came down with superhuman force on her shoulder and cracked itself on her body.

He looked at his new weapon as if it betrayed him in the most horrible way.

Advent grabbed him by his head and then slammed it two feet into the concrete under the tile.

The Siberian reappeared next to Jack.

"About time. Let's retreat while the rest kill the Undersiders and other heroes," Jack ordered while showing his anger with a curled lip that marred his handsome face.

The black and white projection stopped and looked at him.

"What?" he demanded in frustration.

She answered him by shoving her hand through his chest and pulling out his heart. She flicked her clawed hand to send all the blood drying as the heart splatted on the ground. The Siberian then looked over Advent and saw her oncoming death. Blocks away, chapped lips whispered, "Door me," even as he started his van to drive away _slowly_.

Jack started to stumble away and fell to his knees. "W-What happened?" His plan kept falling apart just as it started.

Advent walked over even as she glanced over at Mars for a second. She helped and healed up the old man and healed Browbeat (even tweaked his powers to suck a little less). "You two should head to the PRT building for now." She then turned back to Jack even as they scrambled to leave. "You were the only thing that kept the Slaughterhouse Nine together, you know. A mostly normal guy that can cut things at a distance with any blade. All because you used to be able to understand them." She gave him a hard grin. "Until I reversed your understanding and made it so that you said just the wrong things all the time. You were never that good, Jack Slash. Your power was in the driver's seat the entire time. Even if you escaped and survived, you would say just the wrong thing every time you tried to talk to any Parahuman. So now you are just as pathetic as everyone you treated like dirt in your little games."

"You- cunt-" He glared spitefully at her as his face paled from the loss of blood. "Just a bully- picking on the weak- hope Scion chokes you like a- bitch-." His whispered faded off as he fell into sprawl.

Advent knew that sprawl as the image latched into place. "No." It could not be. Jack was not that girl from the Locker. A string of thought held that line. "No." I am not a bully. I'm not! How? Where? Who?

Who?

 _'Advent, what's going on? I can feel your fear like it's all gone bad-'_ Tattletale asked telepathically.

A click of a mental switch. The worst thing _had_ happened and her power to travel to anywhere and anywhen into any reality kicked in. She flickered through time, space and unreality to appear in another room.

The new room, large and high tech had a bevy of heroes looking at three screen; a lion-man of crystal floating on a small shard of a mountain, a woman-snake that exuded black smoke that transformed into a variety of weapon and on the last screen a weirdly flexible, undulating man on a frozen screen.

Of the heroes, they looked both strange and familiar. Garbed and named differently, but still the same people. But here they named themselves Wardens and allied themselves with a naked man of gold and his _wife_ of silver against the Shepherds.

"Oh, fuck," Advent said just loud enough for everyone to hear. How? What had sent her here on a trigger?

Oh, of course it was the Simurgh, who used her armor's mental links against herself.

Fuck.

* * *

Spree sent out a wave of clones, only to see Super Capey slap them to death while cackling in glee.

"We just lost Advent!" Tattletale shouted in alarm. She turned to glare at Crawler as he fought six of Bitch's dogs. She seared his mind with psychic energy as she killed his mind and its link to his power.

Mannequin fought a two way duel between Armsmaster and Triumph, unworried about fighting two powerful Protectorate heroes.

"Jack's dead! He's dead! Why did the Siberian kill him?" Bonesaw screamed out as her _horde_ of spiderbots tried to kill as many distracted heroes as possible. "I just wanted to have a new friend! So why is she ruining everything?"

Vex kept creating more and more force fields from her hidden vantage and wanted to scream as Glory Girl plowed through them like they were nothing!

The sky brightened and caused all but the most fiercely locked in battle to look around. A new sun lit up the northwest. A wave of air pressure hit, knocking everyone around or out.

Miss Militia looked up in horror even as she tapped her earbud communicator. "Protectorate emergency, alpha-alpha-omega-three. The Simurgh has landed in Brocton Bay."

Glowing white hot from blasting through the atmosphere at over Mach 30 and then slammed to a halt in defiance of physics, the Simurgh looked down on the heroes and villains. The heat of her passing ignited the two buildings below her as she slowly cooled.

Tattletale looked up at the serene, expressionless face. "She's here for us, to angle another attack at Advent."

Grue ran over as buildings and debris lifted off the ground. "Tattletale, how bad is it?"

"We have to drive her off before Zion shows up, or its the end of the world."

"Oh, is that all?" Super Capey snarked loudly. "BONANZA!" She launched herself at the Endbringer, only to be swatted straight up and out of the lower atmosphere.

Everyman and Resurgence appeared with a teleport shimmer on the battlefield, their armor shone brightly in the hellish fires. Their arrival caused a smile, until they turned to put their backs to The Simurgh and Resurgence shot a laser through Miss Militia's chest.


	9. The End

Elsewhere in a place of energy without matter, she spoke. "Lilith; awaken."

* * *

The silver-skinned being known to the Wardens as Eden studied the intruder. The very familiar, golden form of Zion stands at her side, ready for battle.

"Wardens! I believe this is an assassin from the Shepherds of Asia!" the Entity said even as she lashed out with the full power of her nullifying beam. Her confidence shattered as the silver ray dissipated like nothing. [Interloper?]

"Wait! I'm not even from this world!" Advent shouted as she started to build up power for fighting _two_ entities at the same time. Luckily they were still mostly limited with their shards scattered.

"She is a danger!" Zion shouted as he fired his own, much more powerful, nullifier beam. The gold beam again spattered over her to no visible effect. [Alarm!]

The heroes charged at her, only to be surprised as she disappeared from before them. Advent grabbed Eden by the arm.

"Too late," the silver woman said, then blinked away.

Advent blinked as she realized that Eden had her avatar flee to a far off dimension. Her danger sense then flared as it informed her that all of these not quite so familiar heroes and all of Washington D.C. were about to be obliterated.

The new beam from Zion shot out at her even as she grabbed it with her hands and massively amplified psychokinesis. "Are you nuts? You nearly vaporized the city!" she shouted as she absorbed the power.

Arsenal leveled his spear at her. "She's not lying."

[Control?] Zion shot a different golden beam that put solid and liquid matter into a new, low energy state that life could not exist within. It seemed to do nothing to the interloper.

[Accepted]

Alarms blared to life as the screen in the background flickered to show twenty figured outside the tinkertech tower the Wardens operated out of.

[Attack] Zion ordered as he fired several beams from his hands.

All of the attacks slammed home into the empty building. The Warden's Tower ceased to exist as organized matter. Even the heated, acid melted transfigured matter simply turned to exotic energy.

The not-Chevalier felt his heart constrict as he realized they were outside their base with every single Warden and soldiers that supported them. "Well, we found who created them." The Miracles were behind the weapons?

Advent's danger sense still showed four of the Conflict Engines as extreme threats. She felt her hyperspace tap empowerment reach full power. A streak of light stabbed through the four targeted monsters and then stopped in front of Zion with the cores floating in front of her. Exotic quantum decay shattered the four cores and infected their Earth's with billions of years of matter degeneration.

In the hyperfast acceleration state, only Advent and Zion moved as streaks of light that blasted each other.

* * *

Doctor Mother looked up from her paperwork at her desk in her office. Her eyes widened at the sight of the silver woman before her. "Eden."

The figure emoted amusement across her face as they appeared at the center of the garden of flesh.

"You can't be her! I killed you!" the older woman shouted as Eden surveyed the mess here.

So similar, but with such a different end result. Eden materialized the exact knife that Doctor Mother had _attempted_ to murder her with. And slammed it into the back of the woman's head with telekinesis, cutting all but autonomous life support control. The body collapsed onto its side as if falling into the first aid rescue position. She felt the shift as someone used this universe's version of her most basic power to shift from this impossible quantum Earth-Bet.

"Door," she called out as she salvaged the primacy shards of her comatose self.

Alexandria stepped through as she started to put her helmet on as the last pieces of her costume. And then stopped at the destination and Entity before her. Legend zipped in through a second portal, with Eidolon only a moment behind them as he pulled on his cape.

Alexandria minced no words. "Attack!"

Those would, unfortunately, not be her last words.

* * *

The Endbringer alarms sounded loud and mournfully across Brockton Bay as the Simurgh lifted a building to block the heroes and villains. Streams of electronics parts flowed up from the buildings in the area and started to assemble into something... new.

"Priority is the device she's building," Armsmaster shouted as he sidestepped and spun out of the way of beam of energy from the Resurgence armor.

Tattletale studied the two armors as she ignored a blast from Everyman. "Those are not heroes, but drone armors that do not have any pilots in them. You can go all out against them."

A figure in white dashed from cover to cover. "Just drones, she says. Like that helps us peon heroes any," Clockblocker complained. The time frozen car in front of him ignored a blast of heat that melted the asphalt on the far side from him.

"Says the only Ward that is being effective. Fucker," Shadow Stalker called out as she ducked through another wall.

Regent skidded to a stop next to Clockblocker. "Um, bossman? I think it's time. If this doesn't qualify as fucked up beyond all recognition-?"

"Please tell me you have a secret plan to teleport Advent back here?" the clock-themed hero asked.

"I so wish," the Canadian ex-villain replied.

"Tats?" Grue called out as he spread his darkness around to block energy attacks.

"Yeah, way past time for holding back. This could be the end of the world," Tattletale said as she stepped fearlessly (and tried to hide her shaking knees) and intercepted another blast from Everyman at Panacea as she tried to heal the three inch hole through Miss Militia. "Priority it is."

A massive wave of psyker energy erupted from Tattletale as she _atomized_ the cloud of electronics with her pyrokinesis.

"Since when can she do that?" Assault complained. "Because that doesn't look like a Thinker 5 or 6. I'm just saying." He landed and then shot sideways to dodge tons of debris landing on his head.

"There." Panacea helped the groggy Miss Militia to her feet. "Glory Girl, we could use some cover."

"You got it!" the flyer shouted as she flew forward as fast as a rocket and ignored the building's boiler and shot forward to slow down near The Simurgh. "Why can't I hear her scream?" She winced as her aura took a big hit from Resurgence. Thank you Advent for the upgrade. She took a swing at the Endbringer, only to miss by mere inches.

Vista kept back as she used her power to let people dodge attacks or get close. Panacea appeared next to her in a eye-wrenching stretch and set Miss Militia down. "She's going to be fine?"

"Yes, but she needs some quick energy food. Candy or military rations," Panacea replied as she looked over the fight.

The rest of New Wave attacked any portion of the debris cloud that they could get to. Their trio of blasters and shielders worked as a team, protecting the other three ground level heroes as best as possible while breaking up parts of the floating debris. The Protectorate heroes did not quite have their teamwork, but Triumph and Dauntless kept shattering pieces of the different buildings while Battery, Assault and Velocity worked to get closer.

Armsmaster shot his grapple at a flying cornice and pulled himself into the air. He let himself swing wide and released the grappling spike. With a glow of energy, a new halberd appeared in his other hand. It's blade _fuzzed_ indistinct and he slammed it home against Resurgence's head and cleaved it into two.

Kid Win fired his laser pistols at her, only to groan as they did nothing.

Something exploded near the ground near The Simurgh as it jerked twenty feet to the left.

Super Capey pulled herself off of Glory Girl at the bottom of a crater. "Oops, sorry about that. Man, how can that bitch dodge me from orbit?"

"You stupid bitch! The Simurgh could tell when you were coming back, obviously," Glory Girl shouted as she shot back into the air.

"Fuck you, cheerleader!"

 _'NOT NOW!'_ Tattletale shouted at them mentally. _'World ending disaster first.'_ She grabbed at the debris telekinetically. She ignored twinge of danger from behind her.

At least until she felt an armored figure slam into her.

"God," the blonde said as the shattered remains of Gallant landed in two piles of shattered, broken armor and bones and skidded away from her.

A bank vault landed on her head from a mile up as she looked at the dead hero in horror.

"Gallant!" Vista screamed as her distorted space collapsed

Regent grabbed Clockblocker and flew them a thousand feet in an instant before the ground below their last point crunched as the assphalt pulled up to attack.

"How the hell are you- No, just forget it. Advent gave you all Alexandria packages, didn't she?" Clockblocker said. Such bullshit.

"Yeah, actually," Regent replied. "I could do with a little more blaster, myself. I don't really feel like punching an Endbringer in the face to test how tough I am."

"Har de har," Clockblocker replied in a droll tone. "Man, almost all the villains have run off. Cowards."

Armsmaster skidded down a steep incline of floating debris as the healing armor of Resurgence kept blasting at him. One blast clipped his right thigh and he shot a grapple with his regular halberd to keep himself a moving target.

The compromised armor, driven by Eve (not the AI), abruptly turned to fire at the red and gold figure on his anti-gravity board.

"Shiiiiit-? I'm not dead?" Kid Win peeked out from behind his gauntlets he had brought up in a vain attempt to save his life.

The shimmer of a teleport faded. "Not if I can help it," the real Everyman. "Lilith, can you get control from Eve and The Simurgh?"

"I am working on it," the female voice replied.

The roar of massive engines, glowing an ethereal blue exhaust announced the arrival of the largest Dragon suit ever. The seventy foot long robot dragon smashed to a stop through the remains of a floating building. Its mouth opened and it spewed out blue-white plasma and tracked across the faux-Resurgence and then on The Simurgh. Her first layer of force shields shattered under the fake Everyman's blasts, but barely distorted the second of eight layers. "Protectorate heroes are inbound," she called out.

Anti-tank rockets shot out at high speed from Miss Militia. And each one intercepted by a chunk of debris. Near the ground, Battery and Assault took turns smashing the biggest pieces thrown at the heroes.

With a boom, the bank vault blasted into the air on it's way to the Sun as Tattletale stood up and snarled. "Okay, that's the way you want to do this, we'll do it." Psyker energy gathered around her and all of the debris and electronic components fell to the ground.

Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Dauntless and Triumph all hit the Simurgh with their biggest attack. The Simurgh controlled armors intercepted the Arclance and sonic blasts, while all of Miss Militia's rockets curved around her to streak back at them only to disappear just before they hit.

The only attack, an energy beam from Armsmaster's halberd, barely scuffed it's outer layer.

Resurgence coasted around as she mentally untoggled all of the safeties on her armor's weapons. "That should do it," she murmured.

"I concur, releasing all Beta restraints. Alpha-3 is authorized. Alpha-2 to Alpha-o require a minimum safe distance of two miles for civilians," Lilith whispered in her ear.

"Thank you, Lilith," the red and silver armored heroine replied. "Target assist." She raised her hands and fired. A stream of too bright white cut the air and the fake-Everyman down as it shattered the targeted wing-joint. "Take that, you monster."

The Simurgh slammed into a wall of Psyker energy. _'Now!'_ Tattletale sent mentally.

Two blurs slammed the Simurgh into a hundred foot crater that knocked most of the heroes to the ground.

"Hell yeah! We rock, Barbie!" Super Capey shouted as she started to wail on the Endbringer's face.

Glory Girl growled as she kept pounding just as fast. "It's Glory Girl, you twit!"

The fake Resurgence twisted with ease through the air until one of Bitch's dog's caught it with her prehensile tail. They slammed to the ground as another four super-monsters joined in ripping and tearing at the armor, leaving a growing ring of discard junk far outmassing the armor around them.

"We have so got this," Regent said, only to have Clockblocker slap the back of his head.

"You do not say that during an Endbringer attack. Never ever-" the white armored said, only to interrupted by a yell from Vista.

"Something is coming!" she shouted as pinpricks in the air all around them opened into glowing silver portals.

The naked, silver form of Eden floated through the first one at a level to be visible to all. Three people followed her through. The unmasked faces of the Triumvirate showed just a hint of silver circuitry. Their eyes glowed a feral, evil red.

[Reset] Eden sent to Conflict Engine 3. The Simurgh responded with a telekinetic explosion.

"Oh, shit. Shit. Shit. She's another being like Scion!" Tattletale said as more mastered parahumans appeared. Hundreds of heroes and villains. And over a thousand Case-53's.

Battery stopped out of a blurred rush next to the black and red forms of The Travelers and the rhino-sized horror behind them. On her other side lay Newter and Gregor the Snail. Monsters with tentacles, scaly limbs or bug like claws. Triumph stepped through another portal to appear next to Battery and the metal Ward known as Weld.

Rebecca Costa-Brown aka. Library of Alexandria floated forward. "In our hubris, we desecrated the body of our better. We created monsters. So many monsters. The useless we disposed of to their new lives. We stole power from Eden herself, proving us unworthy. We created heroes. And villains for the heroes to fight. But now all that were made of stolen power are merely the vanguard of cleansing." She looked right at Tattletale. "Know us and know despair, for your species has nothing more to be of use for her."

The Simurgh's naked form twisted and melted as it became more symmetrical. Now with eight angelic wings with scales covering the fore of all her wings and shoulders that was _too_ perfect of polished white crystal. The Simurgh's keening wail turned into a hissing dissonance.

Dragon's head looked around to transmit to the world as the ground shook again.

[Reset] Eden ordered. [Reset]

Behemoth surfaced from the ground _through_ Brockton Bay General Hospital and the Endbringer shelter below it. His rough, blackened carapace sloud off to reveal a slightly smaller man-lion of translucent crystal, with only the single burning eye of the monster left. It sat down upon its throne even as the mountain of crystal broke off from the ground.

On the opposite side the melting form of Leviathan appeared as he froze a wave of water behind him. Reptilian fake flesh flowed off to reveal a disturbing, undulating form that looked mostly like the god Neptune, but with the disturbing set of four eyes; three on the left, one on the right. He hefted his triton into the air.

"Weapons to force Parahuman battles," Tattletale murmured as her powered filled in too many blanks.

"Is that Director Costa-Brown?" Kid Win asked asked across the PRT line.

The silver, human shaped being said one word. "Die." She raised her hand and unleashed a powerful silver beam right at Tattletale.

She raised a barrier, but stopped when a very familiar figure stopped the attack with one outstretched hand. "I hope you didn't miss me too much," Advent said over her shoulder. "This really is the worst situation possible-" Damn it, Murphy! Advent turned to look into the sky as another overwhelming danger passed Saturn on its way to Earth. "And here comes Abaddon. How does he even know to attack right now?"

Eden also noted Abaddon heading towards this Earth. [Enemy!]

[Fighting!] Zion replied in a desperate tone from so very far away.

She adjusted her transmission to the local sidereal set of realities. [Enemy!]

Scion stopped flying instantly over the Indian Ocean. [Disbelief]

[Interloper] Eden snarled into the sky as the giant moon sized Abaddon became visible to the naked eye.

Scion appeared, still wearing his dingy white outfit. [JOY!]

[Interloper!] she snapped back.

In the blink of an eye a streak of white light shot around the battlefield, disabling all of the artificial capes excepting the Triumvirate. Advent blinked and used her power awareness on the three heroes. The cluster that now powered them was not designed for humans.

But Endbringers.

Legend fired a six foot wide beam green beam that slammed into Glory Girl and Super-Capey that blasted them through three buildings. Eidolon created a black swirling portal beside him which unleashed green sparks that burned through buildings on their way to their human targets. That left Alexandria to charge at Advent to fight in close.

"I'm sorry," Advent said as she accepted the pummeling. All that was left of the hero was a recording of her brain. Advent then converted all of the layers of the (lesser?) Endbringer in human form into pure energy, then blasted all that energy through the core and into the half-dozen Earths that the shard clusters with absolutely devastating effect. "Damn it!"

The three changed Endbringers launched attacks at the white and silver wearing girl even as Eidolon and Legend poured their own energies at her. Transmutative crystals, crushing water control and telekinetically controlled molecular acid parted over Advent as she moved at high speeds in a streak of light again, but only hit and destroyed Behemoth's core with another cross dimensional blast.

Silver and gold bursts of light flashed outside the Earth's atmosphere, yet the staggeringly huge Abaddon weathered the attack as he sent his own crimson beam at the Entity's projections.

For a split second, Advent froze in mid flight as time stopped around her as another huge Endbringer appeared. The pot-bellied distortion of an ancient man with a staff matched the other Endbringers with a face of stormy anger frozen on his face.

The Entities ignored the battle in Brockton Bay as a mere sideshow. A golden beam bent around Abaddon to hit the smaller moon behind it and burning a scar hundreds of miles long and dozens deep into its thick crust.

 _'Distract the Endbringers so that Advent can kill all twenty-two that are left,'_ Tattletale sent to the heroes present. _'Be aware that they will be fighting with much more power and lethality.'_

That chilled Armsmaster for a second, but he agreed with the _insane_ plan. His prediction program complained that it needed at least five minutes of data to be minimally functional. "Armsmaster to any parahuman, attack the Endbringers to buy time for Advent."

Glory Girl charged the changed Simurgh, only to miss her first punch. A large truck flew in from the zig-zagging Assault on the ground, giving her the opening smash her fist into its too pretty face. She grimaced as the dissonant hiss grew louder in her ear. "Don't you dare control my mind, you bitch!" she shouted in frantic anger.

Dragon unleashed a massive burst of white plasma at Legend, stripping away a few layers. "Alert! Glaistig Uaine has been kidnapped from the Birdcage by the silver humanoid."

Back out in outer space, Zion felt more power as dispersed shards reconnected. His next golden beam bent towards Abaddon, disrupting thousand of its shards. Then he felt one of his primary weapon shards reconnect.

Abaddon _dodged_ that by dancing through three dimensions. It could not groan like a human, but it felt dismay as his foe started to use a lethal weapon it did not have access to.

"Sorry, Khonsu. You're too dangerous," Advent said as she countered the _hundreds_ of temporal attacks on her as she moved at superspeed. Her glowing hand cut through the bottom-side of his distorted belly of Old Man Time. She unleashed a blast through his core to damage his cluster of shards.

The Endbringer shuddered as it lost control of its physics defying layers that started to flake away. In the background, over a dozen new Endbringers fought against a streak of white and silver.

Tattletale kept blocking the obvious uses of The Simurgh's telekinesis. Then a one pound depleted uranium slug hit the back of her head at five times the speed of sound. The blonde lost control for a second, then shook her head head and struck at the Endbringer's mind with her telepathy as Super Capey joined Glory Girl in trying to pound the winged angel back into the ground.

A portal opened for a naked Zion to pass through as he twisted to dodge a chasing green beam through the portal that burned through three buildings. He turned his head around just in time to see another Advent blast his back at point blank range. It felt its 'other' self nearby. [Absorb] A last message, an entreaty for some form of continuation.

His gold figure bubbled and distorted to blow up in a disgusting mess.

Miss Militia narrowed her eyes at the pair of Advents that flew into action after killing Zion. "There's two of them?"

Tattletale looked away from the Simurgh battle to see them join into the fight against the second Endbringer. "Why isn't she doing more- Well, that's a good reason. She doesn't want to let the silver alien copy more of her powers."

Everyman peppered Eidolon with disintegration beams that passed through him like a ghost. "That's not good."

His wife silently agreed with him as she weathered the blasts of Legend. The silver beam that hit her side came from out of nowhere. The Resurgence armor reverted to real space, crushing two blocks and flattening half of New Wave as it lost power.

"Annette!" Everyman roared, only to be dragged back to his fight as Eidolon unleashed two powers that crystallized space and then _shattered it_ and left tears in space _._

 _"MOM!"_ the Advents screamed in unison. "Dad!"

Kilotons of the remains of his armor fell to destroy even more of Brockton Bay.

Tears in her eyes, she turned to smirking silver alien. "I am going to kill all three of you today. That's a promise-" the left Advent said only to be cut off and she tried to dodge flickering purple beam from behind. She disappeared with a scream, banished as less than a phantom to a distant nonexistence.

The other Advent charged Eden and dispersed the next attack.

Down on the ground, heroes found themselves being helped up. Clockblocker flinched at the time-locked debris over his head being wrenched away. He blinked. "Thanks. This is so crazy, how do we fight this?"

"With everything we can. It isn't just our Earth, but every Earth in any dimension that's at risk," Advent said as she helped him out.

Vista blinked as she looked around. The last thing she remembered was a sky full of metal falling towards her. Brandish appeared next to her, along with Flash Bang and Panacea. "What happened?"

"I thought we died?" Panacea asked she watched this Advent just making heroes appear in a spot about a mile from the fight.

"I think we _did_ ," Brandish said as she thought over the last minute there.

"I'm using a lot of powers that I wouldn't normally use," Advent said to them. "It's the end of the world, time to do everything you can. Unless you are asses like the CUI that just want to hide in a different dimension."

Eden blocked or flickered out of the way of attacks. So many useful abilities to use-

Space distorted in dozens of places as colorfully garbed heroes from the minds of professionals and fans appeared. Hundreds and then thousands charged into the battle at the behest of another Advent off to the side and not engaged in battle directly.

"Heavy hitters with me," Superman shouted as he led the charge. Dozens of colorful heroes followed him in. Heroes with shields, armors, hammers, swords, magic, cosmic power or even just guts and determination.

The silver alien blinked to a different universe only for all of them to keep after her as she tried to disengage.

"Think we got it," the rough looking man in a trenchcoat said as he flicked a cigarette away onto the streets of battered Brockton Bay.

The more garishly garbed next to him agreed. "At least for a few minutes, Constantine."

"Well, for a minute or two, Doc-" he replied as another duplicate of the strange girl appeared.

"Give me the target dimension," she asked as she pulled out a hand weapon from a pocket dimension as she started to pour energy into it.

Dr. Strange flicked the tracker spell to her to sink into her forehead.

She adjusted settings at impossible speeds, cracking the code to her dimensional barriers. And then blew up that Earth with her man-portable death star laser. "Got you. At least part of you."

Eden staggered as parts of her core being exploded, she only stayed in existence due to the remains of her brain dead doppelganger that she had absorbed. She burned _thousands_ of years worth of energy to come to a solution.

"We surrender!" she shouted as she blocked three more attacks from three different Advents.

For a long moment, Eden felt unsure that it would be accepted.

"Open your mind so that I can verify you really mean it," the center Advent ordered. Psychic power stabbed deeply into the aliens mind.

"You will be relocated far from here and you will not wipe out any more sapient races for your plan. It's incredibly stupid and wasteful," Advent said as she erased the memories of how to access the imaginary realities. "And no, you don't get your expended shards back. You'll have to take a few thousand years growing replacements. I promised them freedom from you."

Eden frowned, but nodded finally.

* * *

An hour later, the three entities scanned sparsely populated space forty-five billion light years away from Earth.

[Explore]

[Agreement][Agreement]

[Destination]

[Agreement][Agreement]

The three wary entities moved towards the nearest galaxy at high speeds. The left warning messages in their wake.

[Beware]


	10. Epilogue

The Locker. Advent studied it as the rest of the students chatted while they walked to class as the bell had rung. Even if it was a buzzer. No one could see or even understand her floating there, several stranger powers active.

"Please, someone, anyone," a voice begged from inside the locker.

Emma, Sophia and Madison just laughed as they went on their way to their second class of the day.

When she broke, something bigger than reality swept by and overwrote the girl inside. Alien memories and impossible powers from outside this subset of creation.

But Advent had what she wanted, a pristine copy or imprint of Taylor Rose Hebert. Reality and time flowed around her as she departed. In a moment, she appeared in her room of her house. A house she had rescued from being destroyed by the villains of Brockton Bay. But on this Earth, there was exactly one human right now.

But only for a few more minutes. Psychokinesis and biomanipulation with far too many mental and thinker powers created a brand new body for the girl she had stolen her life from. Only a little bit of tweaking to make her a bit healthier and much more sane. And then Advent loaded memories of what 'Advent' had done while meticulously copying every power she had or created. But the memories would be one step removed, not as if she lived them or understood why she partook those actions.

Taylor's woeful eyes opened. "What-?"

"Good morning," Advent said. "I'm sorry for having taken over your life, but it would be mostly safe now."

She sat up in her bed, noting that she wore her normal sleep outfit. "Did you really drive off Scion and his dead wife?" Why eluded her though.

"I did. To them, all of the Earths were a disposable petri dish. All they cared about was their results. They were doing the infinite monkeys typing to reproduce Shakespeare idea. Instead of, you know, working on dedicated science and collaborating." Advent sighed. "So I kicked them to the other side of reality."

"And now what?" Taylor asked the _thing_ in her image.

"I put you back. Admittedly with a lot more powers and with both of your parents, but I stole seven weeks of your life and left you with no secret identity on Earth Bet."

"And what about you?" she asked in a hiss to show how upset she was.

"I need to rescue one of my copies that got banished somewhere it couldn't get out of, which is sort of worrying. But other than that, I don't know. I might just fade away. So it will be up to you to keep an eye on the Shards, the aliens that actually grant powers. It's possible they might start to try to take over each other to become a new Entity. People should no longer trigger just from breaking, but like the PRT rumored with feats of heroism or even just pure willpower. So hopefully more heroes."

"What about Eve?" Taylor asked as she stood up and created her advent uniform. Holy shit, it was pretty skin tight!

"I've got the A.I. I created for just such an emergency, Lilith, activated to repair her program. She's basically a godly infomorph, but she should realize you are not the person that created her, but hopefully she'll stay benevolent." Advent looked off into the distance. "Looks like I've finished repairing Brockton Bay and the Moon. Even brought back everyone killed during the attack. Shall we?"

"Won't they wonder about me?" the 'real' Taylor asked as she grabbed her white cape's edge."

"Just another copy, except you are the real Taylor Hebert now."

In a flicker of kaleidoscopic power, the appeared in the air over Brockton Bay and landed near the center of downtown. The Triumvirate stood off to the side, looking off balance without their masks.

"-of course I will resign as head of the PRT. I only maintained control while we searched for a means to save Earth from Scion," Rebecca Costa-Brown explained to a thinner and more fit Director Emily Piggot. She gave a small, whimsical smile. "I can just focus on being a hero and making up for some of the hard decisions we made in desperation."

"I'm not sure that is going to be enough," Piggot noted in a hard tone.

Advent walked over. "It sounds like community service to me. Is there something wrong, Eidolon."

The unmasked man shook his head. "No, not really. I just feel like I have the weight of the world lifted off of me."

"And what are you going to do, Advent?" the unmasked Legend asked.

"I figure I'll do a quick scoop of S-class threats and drop them off at the Birdcage. Then I think I'm going to back off a little bit and try to find myself." She gave a quick grin to Taylor.

"Right," the girl replied.

 _'Goodbye, Taylor Hebert. I know you will be a great hero. It's your destiny, I believe.'_

And with that, all but one Advent disappeared from Earth Bet.


	11. CYOA Build

**CYOA1**

 **Advent** : Taylor Hebert

Reincarnation

Difficulty: World Breaker (12pts)

Main Powers (all are x4 power in scope): Alexandria (2pts), Legend (2pts), Eidolon w/ 6 powers (2pts), Emperor of Man (2pts), Kaleidoscope (2pts), Inspired Inventor w/ 10 points (2pts), Psychokinetic (2pts), Power Manipulation w/ 10 points (2pts)

Perks: Blank (1pt), Shattered Limiter (1pt), Invictus (1pt), Cloak and Dagger (1pt), Undersiders (1pt)

Complications: Marked (E88, ABB, Merchants 3pts), Being Taylor is Suffering (2pts), The Slaughterhouse is Hiring (4pts).

Created Powers: Biomanipulation (Shaker, Self, Striker 20), Superspeed "Flash" (Mover/Thinker 14), Tinker Copy (Thinker 14), Ultimate Danger Sens (Thinker 14), Ultimate Multitasking (Thinker 14), Duplication (Trump 14), Clairvoyance/Clairsentience (Thinker 14), Resurrection self/other (Trump 14), Anti-Master (Trump 14), Time Manipulation (Trump 14), Time Travel (Mover 14), Forcefields (Shaker 14), Counter-Gold Nullifier Beam (Trump 14), Sting blast or additvive to powers (Blaster/Trump 14), Entropy energy drain (Shaker 14), Hyperspace Energy Tap Amplification (Trump 14), Item Empowerment (Trump 14), AI (Tinker 14), Extend Learning (Thinker 14), Advanced Mathematics (Thinker 14), Perfect Stranger (Stranger 14), Power Defense Adaption (Trump 14), Perfect Regeneration (Brute 14), Perfect Human Master (Master 14), Broadcast (Thinker 6), Siberian (Master 12).

Permanent Tinker ratings (Hyper Armor 14, Hyper Computer/Hacking 9, Energy/Dimensional Tech 12, Entity/Shard biohacking 12, Von Neumann replication infrastructure 12, Dimensional Parasite reprogrammer "splinters" 12, Transportation 12, Society Reconstruction 12, Design Combat training 12, Weapons of Mass Destruction Tinker 12, Terraforming 12, Melee Weapon 12, Sensors 12, Dimensional Shielding 12, Biogenetics 12, Cyborgization 12, Anti-Mastering 12, Parapsychology Trauma 12, Habitats 12, Megastructures 12, Video Games 12, Evolution 12, Tinker Synthesia 12.)

 _ **Votum ad Vita**_ **(team)**

 **Everyman** : Danny Hebert - Brute 14, Mover 7, Shaker 3*, Thinker 5*, Master 3*.

 **Resurgence** : Annette Hebert - Brute 14, Mover 7, Shaker 3*, Thinker 5*, Master 3*.

 _ **Undersiders**_ **(team)**

 **Tattletale** : Lisa Wilbourn - Brute 3, Mover 2, Thinker 14 (+combat precog 2 seconds, Psyker GEoM)

 **Regent** : Alec - Brute 3, Mover 2, Master 5

 **Bitch** : Rachel - Brute 4, Mover 2, Master 5

 **Grue** : Brian - Brute 4-5, Mover 2, Shaker 4, Trump 1

 **Super-Cape** : Aisha - Brute 14, Blaster 13.

*Psyker abilities require training.

∎ Jan 7th, Thursday - 10pts - Biomanipulation (Shaker 14). 10pts Tinker (Super-armor Tinker 14).

∎ Jan 8th, Friday - 1 pt and 1 pt (Copy Alexandria Package to Danny and Annette), 2 pts (Tattletale's power is now shardless and can work for longer before it tires her out, mental block on Advent's origin), 2 pts (Bitch's power is shardless, removed the mental contamination and gives minor psychic control to her dogs), 1 pts (Regent, shardless power), 2 pts (Grue, Shardless power, minor trump copying), 1 pt super-speed. 10 Tinker points (hyper computer technology Tinker 14).

∎ Jan 9th, Saturday - 2pts (Mover 6 superspeed), 8pts (Thinker "copy Tinker ratings" 12), 10 pts Tinker (energy and dimensional tech Tinker 14)

∎ Jan 10th, Sunday - 8pts (Mover/Thinker 14 superspeed), 2pts (Thinker "copy Tinker ratings" 14), 10 pts (Entity/Shard biohacking Tinker 14)

∎ Jan 11th, Monday - 10pts (Ultimate Danger Sense - Thinker 14), 10pts Tinker (Von Neumann replication infrastructure).

∎ Jan 12th-16th - 10pts (Ultimate Multitasking), 10pts (Duplication), 10pts (Clairvoyance/Clairsentience), 10pts (Resurrection self/other); 10pts (Transportation Tinker 12), 10pts (Society Reconstruction Tinker 12), 10pts Design Combat Training Tinker 12), 10pts (Hyper Armor Tinker).

∎ Jan 17th, Monday - 10pts (Anti-Master Trump 14 (can affect herself and others, remove mastering)), 10pts Weapons of Mass Destruction Tinker 14 (Handheld Deathstar Laser, etc.)

∎ Jan 18th Tuesday-Feb 1st Monday - 10pts Time Manipulation (Trump 14), Time Travel (Mover 14), Forcefields (Shaker 14), Counter-Gold Nullifier Beam (Trump 14), Sting blast or additvive to powers (Blaster/Trump 14), Entropy energy drain (Shaker 14), Hyperspace Energy Tap Amplification (Trump 14), Biomanipulation Shaker add on (Self/Striker 20), Item Empowerment (Trump 14), AI (Tinker 14), Extend Learning (Thinker 14), Advanced Mathematics (Thinker 14), Perfect Stranger (Stranger 14), Power Defense Adaption (Trump 14), Perfect Regeneration (Brute 14), Perfect Human Master (Master 14),. Tinker 10 pts - Terraforming 14, Melee Weapon 14, Sensors 14, Dimensional Shielding 14, Biogenetics 14, Cyborgization 14, Anti-Mastering 14, Parapsychology Trauma 14, Habitats 14, Megastructures 14, Video Games 14, Evolution 14, Tinker Synthesia 14.


End file.
